
Class &-7 s J- 

Book jEff^- 

Copyright N° 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



( >p5-nght, 



ockwood, N. Y. 

COL. THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



A LIFE 



OF 



Theodore Roosevelt 



BY 

FRANCES M. PERRY 



AUTHOR OF 



FOUR AMERICAN INVENTORS," "FOUR AMERICAN PIONEERS," "FOUR 
LEAT AMERICAN INDIANS," "GREAT AMERICAN PRESIDENTS " 



GR1 



PUBLISHED BY 

J. M. STRADLING & COMPANY 
NEW YORK 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 26 1903 

Copyright Entry 

CLASS ou XXc. No. 
n j- o X O 
y COPY 8 



- 



Copyrighted, 1903, by 
J. M STRADLING & COMPANY. 



• 1 • 1 



ELECTROTYPEO BY 
WESTCOTT Sl THOMSON. PHILAOA. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



I. Early Influences 5 

II. Study and Recreation . . / 10 

III. In Politics l 7 

IV. Ranch Life 2 7 

V. The Wilderness Hunter 4* 

VI. Troublesome Neighbors 5 1 

VII. Important Offices 6 3 

VIII. War Threatens ? 2 

IX. Preparations for War 79 

X. In Cuba 88 

XI. After the War IO ° 

XII. Governor IIX 

XIII. The President ll 9 



PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



Mr. Roosevelt's life has been a 
continual development. When he 
has accomplished one difficult under- 
taking, he has not been satisfied to 
rest with that, but he has been eager 
to press forward to some new work 
that called into play other energies 
than those already exercised. 

He is broadly tolerant by nature 
and training, and is quick to recognize 
worth in any condition of life. Hav- 
ing found the red man a true and 
loyal guide in the Western moun- 
tains, having seen the black man val- 
iant under fire, he cannot understand 
the spirit of those who refuse to shake 
hands with a man unless his skin is 
white. 

His sound sense, broad humanity, 
perfect impartiality, and sturdy hon- 
esty have made friends for him every- 
where. 



A LIFE 



OF 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



EARLY INFLUENCES. 

The log-cabin and the frontier were known 
to Theodore Roosevelt in childhood only 
through books. He belongs to one of the 
old families of New York City. 

His ancestors were pioneers two hundred 
years before he was born. 

They were among the first thrifty Hollanders 
who settled in New Amsterdam. There, gen- 
eration after generation of Roosevelts lived 
and worked, gaining wealth and influence, 
while the Dutch village grew into the great 
American city, New York. 

They were good citizens, bringing up their 
children as they had been brought up, to be 
industrious and useful members of society, 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



good fathers, and good members of Church 
and State. They joined, sire and son, the 
Dutch Reformed Church. They could be de- 
pended upon to do their part for their country 
in war or peace. 

For six generations the family had served 
the public faithfully as councilmen or assem- 
blymen. A strong sense of responsibility for 
the welfare of the community has always been 
a characteristic of the family. 

Theodore was born October 27, 1858, in the 
stately old house, No. 28 East Twentieth 
Street, New York City. This home was not 
so dear to him, however, as the country place, 
" Tranquillity," at Oyster Bay, on Long Island, 
where he spent the happiest days of his boy- 
hood. 

He was not a strong child, and was encour- 
aged to spend much of his time playing in the 
open air, tramping through the forest, or row- 
ing or swimming in the blue waters of the bay. 

Thus, very early he came to be interested 
in nature, to know and love the wild, sweet 
freedom of the forest, and to notice plants, and 
birds, and fish, and animals of all sorts. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 7 

When he was a small child, the Civil War 
was in progress. Of course, battles and sol- 
diers were talked about on every hand. The 
heroism of the soldiers made a strong appeal 
to the little boy in the big city house. 

He heard of their splendid fighting, of how 
they slept on the ground and had almost 
nothing to eat, and he wished he could do 
something like that for his country. 

As he grew old enough to read, his favorite 
books were stories of war and pioneer life. 
Boone and Crockett were two of his heroes. 
If a man could not be a soldier, in his estima- 
tion the next best thing was to be a pioneer, 
and fight with the Indians and hunt wild 
beasts. 

Among his companions he liked best the 
boys who were strong and daring. He was 
devoted to his brother, an athletic youth, the 
faithful champion of Theodore, whose courage 
so far exceeded his strength that he frequently 
engaged in a combat to which he was not 
equal. 

The fact that he was not so strong as the 
boys he admired was a source of real trouble 



THE OD ORE K O OSE VEL T. 



to the youth. He determined to do all in his 
power to make himself more rugged and 
robust. 

He denied himself sweets, and followed 
faithfully any system of bathing, exercise, or 
diet which he believed would be beneficial. 
Indeed, he seemed to take a sort of satisfaction 
in disciplining himself with military severity. 

At the same time he was fond of fun. If 
there was any excitement afoot, he was sure 
to have a part in it. When he made an 
address to the people of Oyster Bay after his 
return from Cuba he referred to the time when 
he was a boy in the town, and, pointing to a 
great tree in which school-boys were perched 
to see and hear him, said he could remember 
listening in that very tree to a Fourth of July 
oration back in the sixties. 

What with plenty of good books and his 
father to direct his study of natural history, it 
is probable that the keen, observing lad learned 
more out of school than he did at his desk. 
Nevertheless, he was required to go to school 
— first to the public, later to private schools. 

His school work, though by no means re- 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. g 

markable, was thorough and creditable. He 
was an interesting pupil, because he always 
had an opinion of his own, and did not accept 
without thinking whatever the teacher or the 
text-book said. 

Then, too, he always did his best when the 
lesson was hardest and most of the other boys 
gave up. 

At home he was carefully trained with his 
brothers and sisters to be good, to be kind, to 
be polite. His mother took pains to be much 
with her children, and to make home a pleasant 
place for them. 

His father was a judge and a philanthropist. 
Many a fatherless poor boy in New York knew 
and loved Judge Roosevelt, and his own little 
sons were never happier than when they had 
won his approval. 

To give his father pleasure was motive 
enough for Theodore to make almost any 
effort. The father died before the son reached 
manhood, but the latter did not soon outgrow 
the reverent love he had felt for his father, nor 
the wish to live in a way that would have 
given him satisfaction. 



IO THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

Years after his father's death, when he was 
congratulated by a friend on a great piece of 
work he had accomplished for the public good, 
he exclaimed, " If only my father were alive to 
see it!" 

The inheritance and the home life of the boy 
were such as to contribute enduring strength 
and sweetness to his nature. 



II. 

STUDY AND RECREATION, 

By the time young Roosevelt was ready to 
enter college he had become as strong and vig- 
orous as the average youth. He took part in 
school athletics, and lived much out-of-doors, 
spending his vacations camping and hunting. 

In his opinion, no pastime was to be com- 
pared with hunting. He was never so happy 
as when off on a long hunt. 

Later in life he did not think fire-hunting 
very good sport, but he never forgot the breath- 
less delight of his first fire-hunt in the Adiron- 
dacks. 



THE OD ORE R O OSE VEL T. I I 

Then, the starlit night, the dark water of the 
lake, the graceful bark canoe, the noiseless dip- 
ping of the paddle, the sound of splashing water 
where the deer drank, the leveled rifle, the flash 
of the jack lamp, and the wondering gaze of 
the great-eyed deer combined to charm his 
fancy and give him keen enjoyment. 

One autumn he went to the Maine woods 
with a single comrade to hunt deer. The boys 
had a hard trip. The water was so low that 
they had to carry their pirogue most of the 
way. 

They saw no deer, but got some small game 
and had a good outing. They went home re- 
freshed and ready for work. 

Maine was the scene of many of Roosevelt's 
youthful hunting ventures. A week spent there 
tracking the reindeer in snow-shoes gave him 
particular pleasure. Even in boyhood he would 
have thought it mere butchery to hunt ordinary 
deer in the deep snow. 

But to hunt reindeer, which are quite at their 
ease in snow-covered forests, is apt to be harder 
for the hunter than for the deer, and he was 
eager to try his luck at it. 



12 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

Accordingly, well equipped for the cold, he 
and a friend went one winter to a logging camp 
in the heart of a forest where the reindeer win- 
tered. 

They drove from the railroad to the logging 
camp, where they were received with the rough 
but genuine hospitality of the lumberman. 
Making the comfortable camp their headquar- 
ters, they penetrated the wintery solitude of the 
forest, following on snow-shoes the trail of many 
a deer, but finding none. 

However, the vigorous exercise in the brac- 
ing air, the good dinners at the logging camp, 
the excitement of the pursuit of the wary game, 
the beauty of the white forest, and the "silver 
thaw" that marked the end of their stay made 
the young hunters consider the trip a success. 

When Theodore was seventeen years old his 
brother went West to hunt buffalo on the Great 
Plains. He was almost as delighted as if he 
had been going himself, and presented his 
brother with the rifle with which he had shot 
his first deer. . 

At the age of eighteen Theodore Roosevelt 
entered Harvard College. During the four 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 1 3 

years he spent at the university his interest 
was centered in study. 

That boyhood trait of having opinions of his 
own and being unwilling to be satisfied with 
what some one else said strengthened as years 
passed. 

He did not, like many college boys, jot down 
a few notes from a professor's lecture and then 
forget the subject until time for examination. 
A good lecture led him to think and to read. 

Though not satisfied with a conclusion 
reached without careful investigation, he was 
rarely without an opinion on a subject upon 
which he had any information at all. His mind 
worked quickly to form theories concerning 
whatever facts were presented to it. 

His ready opinions, and the vim and good 
reason with which he could defend them, made 
him an interesting character in the class-room. 
He was recognized as a man who did his own 
thinking. 

His favorite subjects were history, English, 
political economy, and the natural sciences. 
His general reading was more serious than that 
of majiy students. Essays, biographies, and 



14 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

histories were often chosen by him in prefer- 
ence to stories. 

Boston, Cambridge, and the neighboring New 
England towns, with their many historical asso- 
ciations, fostered in him an interest in the early 
history of America. He explored the crooked 
streets of Boston for Faneuil Hall and the Old 
North Church. 

He stood beneath the spreading Washington 
Elm in Cambridge. The battle-grounds of 
Bunker Hill, Lexington, and Concord came to 
be familiar to him. He visited Plymouth Rock 
and saw the old Plymouth Burying Ground ; 
dwellings, inns, and meeting-houses, more than 
a century old, helped to make the past real for 
him. 

While he cared particularly for United States 
history, he understood that it was impossible to 
know that rightly without knowing the history 
of other nations, and took pains to make him- 
self familiar with the world's heroes and their 
achievements. 

He sought in a scholarly way to see events 
properly related to each other ; to see whatever 
he studied in its bearing upon kindred subjects. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 1 5 

He ranked among the first students in his 
class. When he graduated, he was one of the 
few to w r hom membership to the Phi Beta 
Kappa Society was awarded for fine scholar- 
ship. While in college he was a member of 
the Natural History Society, the Art Club, and 
an editor of the Advocate. 

Theodore Roosevelt had time to do his work 
well and to do much more. Just as he would 
not study United States history without study- 
ing the history of other countries, he would not 
bury himself in books and neglect the other 
sides of life. His aim was to give himself an 
all-round education, physical and social as well 
as intellectual. 

He had two sunny rooms in a pleasant, quiet 
house not far from the Charles River, but far 
enough from the college to insure his taking 
some exercise every day. 

His study was well supplied with books. 
The walls were decorated with pictures of his 
own choosing, antlers, and other trophies of the 
hunt. 

He kept a good horse, a stylish high cart, and 
drove a great deal. He was rarely alone on 



1 6 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

his drives, and his horse contributed to his own 
enjoyment quite as much as to his health. 

He joined the Athletic Association and the 
Harvard Rifle Corps. 

He had plenty of college spirit, and was 
always on hand to cheer for the Harvard crim- 
son at the great boat-races and ball-games. He 
took an active part in manly sports, and had few 
superiors in sparring and boxing. 

He was a member of the Hasty Pudding 
Club, and belonged to a fraternity. However, 
he did not limit his friendships to any particu- 
lar circle. 

He was quick to appreciate merit wherever 
he saw it. If a man had any conspicuous merit, 
Roosevelt could overlook some faults in him. 

He was ready to discuss political economy 
at length with the man of ideas, even if he 
wore a shabby, ill-fitting coat ; or to spar with 
the athlete from the backwoods who, in talking, 
violated many of the rules for correct speech 
taught by Professor Hill. 

He could excuse a good writer being what 
the boys call a "grind''; if a youth had a cour- 
ageous heart, he could forgive his puny arm — 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



in short, though he had an extremely high 
standard and rigidly required for himself de- 
velopment in all directions, he was tolerant 
enough with the shortcomings of those less for- 
tunate than he. 

After receiving the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts from Harvard in 1880, Mr. Roosevelt 
travelled for a year in Europe. He climbed 
the Alps ; he practised his French ; he visited 
many of the places he had read of in history 
and literature; he hunted with English friends; 
and after a pleasant and profitable year, started 
for home as loyal an American as ever. 



III. 

IN POLITICS. 



On the long homeward voyage Mr. Roose- 
velt had time to think over the past and con- 
sider the future. Well equipped, with a strong 
constitution and a trained mind, he stood with 
the w r orld before him. 

Should he, like some of his college friends, 
go to the great West and become a ranchman ? 
The novelty and wildness of the life attracted 



I 8 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

him. That, however, would be too much like 
a glorious holiday. 

He might do that some day, but just now he 
must give the head he had been so busy train- 
ing: some harder work to do. 

Should he devote his life to letters and 
spend the rest of it as he had the last few 
years, among books and pictures and culti- 
vated people ? His means were sufficient. 
There was nothing to prevent him doing so. 

There was plenty of work for the scholar to 
do — already he was thinking of a book he 
wanted to write. But no ; he would study, 
he would write the book, but he must do 
something besides, something that would call 
into play his love of contest and adventure. 

Should he be a banker and financier and 
bend his efforts to piling up millions and in- 
creasing the wealth his forefathers had made ? 
That was too selfish. 

The young man was interested in people. 
He had high ideals. He wanted to use his 
power and spend his life to help make the 
world better. 

He decided that his half-formed plan to 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 1 9 

study law was best. To a great lawyer many 
and varied opportunities were open. Accord- 
ingly, when he reached New York, he began 
to study law in the office of his uncle, Robert 
B. Roosevelt. 

Several hours each day he read law indus- 
triously. During leisure hours he began work 
on his history of the war of 1812, which was 
published in 1882. 

As his father and grandfather had done, 
Roosevelt took a lively interest in politics. 
Like them, he was concerned not merely with 
national political issues, but with city and State 
government. He attended primaries and vis- 
ited political clubs. 

He found in control of political organiza- 
tions a set of men who, instead of trying to 
secure good government for the city, were in- 
terested to get weak, easily influenced men 
elected to important offices so that bribery and 
law-breaking might continue unpunished. 

These leaders at first gave the stranger from 
the " brown-stone district," as they called the 
part of the city in which he lived, a cordial 
welcome. 



20 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



They had forgotten his father, and suppos- 
ing the rich young law student to be looking 
out for a public office, hoped he would be 
willing to pay them well for helping him to 
get it. 

He was invited to make a speech. He 
made one denouncing dishonesty and fraud 
in politics, and demanding reform in terms so 
forcible and characteristic that they were not 
soon forgotten. 

The "bosses," finding that he w r as not of the 
weak and easily influenced sort, and that he 
would probably make trouble for them, turned 
upon him the cold shoulder. He, however, 
had expected this, and was not to be driven 
away from the club-rooms. 

He talked with the men in his friendly, 
genial manner, finding common ground be- 
tween himself and them wherever it was pos- 
sible, for he saw how large a part the personal 
element played in local politics. 

He soon won many friends among the better 
sort of men who habitually frequented the 
clubs, and brought in new r members. In this 
way he gained so large a following that the 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 21 

• 

Republican Party was obliged to recognize 
him. 

He was, accordingly, nominated to represent 
his district in the lower house of the New York 
Legislature. 

He was called the " silk-stocking " candi- 
date, because he belonged to one of the 
wealthy and aristocratic families of the city. 
But in spite of ridicule he was elected. 

When the slight, boyish-looking member 
from New York took his seat in the Assembly 
room at Albany for the first time, he attracted 
little attention except from the corrupt politi- 
cians who hoped to find in him a man whose 
vote they could control. 

He, on the other hand, was very wide awake 
to see just what sort of men each of his 127 
fellow legislators was. 

He found among them Irish, German, and 
Americans; city men and farmers; educated 
men and ignorant men ; wise and foolish ; 
clever and simple; rich and poor; good and 
bad. The essential question with Roosevelt 
was, Which were honest and which were dis- 
honest. 



22 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

In a short time he had decided to his own 
satisfaction just what was the moral fiber of 
each. 

He believed many to be thoroughly honest 
and manly. Others he saw were weak and, 
though their natural impulses were right, could 
be influenced to act either generously or sel- 
fishly. 

Still others, he felt sure, were criminal, 
shamelessly selling their vote and their influ- 
ence, and striving to corrupt other assembly- 
men. 

He did not wish to shrink from or avoid the 
wicked and the weak. He was too good a 
fighter for that. His wish was to make war 
against the wicked, to join the good, and to 
win and lead the weak. 

Though only twenty-three years old and the 
youngest member of the Assembly, Roosevelt 
soon made his presence felt. His voice was 
ever raised for honesty and the public good. 

The corrupt who had sold their own votes 
and were acting as agents to buy the votes of 
others feared and hated the youthful but vigor- 
ous reformer. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 23 

The upright men who, hitherto, either be- 
cause of timidity or of inability, had remained 
inactive, looked upon him as their leader. 

He was twice re-elected, serving, in all, 
three terms, in the years 1882, 1883, and 
1884. During this time he held the place 
of leader of the Republican minority. 

He was a tireless worker, never sparing him- 
self in his efforts to discover the truth and pre- 
vent fraud. Where it was possible, he did not 
trust to report, but made original investigation. 

During the discussion of the Anti-tenement 
Cigar-maker's Bill he visited the tenements and 
saw with his own eyes the frightful misery and 
poverty in which hundreds of his fellowmen 
lived. 

He felt keenly the need of bettering their 
condition, not by charity, but by making and 
enforcing just laws, and realized sharply the 
heavy responsibility of the educated citizen. 

Mr. Roosevelt made a hard fight against 
the acceptance, by public officers, of money 
from private citizens for the performance of 
official duty. 

He secured an investigation by which it 



24 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

was discovered that the county clerk received 
upward of $82,000 a year in fees, and the sher- 
iff about $100,000. Through his efforts fees 
in the office of register and county clerk were 
abolished. 

The aldermen in New York had the authority 
to veto appointments made by the mayor. This 
gave- them a power over the mayor that they 
often used to the public injury. 

Under this regulation it was impossible for 
a mayor to appoint officers because of merit 
and their fitness for the work ; he had to con- 
sider always what a man's politics were and 
what political friends or enemies he had before 
making the appointment. 

Roosevelt, who believed heartily that all offi- 
cers should be appointed because- of merit only, 
introduced a bill to deprive the aldermen of 
this power, and, by the exertion of his great in- 
fluence, secured its passage. 

This he considered his greatest service while 
acting as an assemblyman. 

During three years he saw many of the 
evils of party ''machines." He saw that their 
power was so great that a man could scarcely 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 2$ 

be elected to office without the help of the 
machine "bosses." 

He saw that many ambitious men who would 
otherwise have used their influence for right 
and honesty were controlled by the bosses be- 
cause they feared they would not be re-elected 
unless they kept the favor of those powerful 
but unprincipled politicians. 

For his own part he took as his watchword 
" Better faithful than famous," and decided from 
the first, never for one moment to think of what 
the bearing of any legislative action of his 
might be on his political future. 

It is needless to say that he kept his reso- 
lution and was consequently in great disfavor 
with the managers of the party machine. 

Yet he was so fair-minded that he did not 
condemn the machine. He saw its utility and 
that the difficulty lay not in the party organi- 
zation, which was very complete and effective, 
but in the fact that it was managed by selfish, 
dishonest men. 

He could understand better how men of that 
class, with no high moral standard, could take 
advantage of their positions to keep their places 



26 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

and enrich themselves, than he could how men 
of high principle and good education, could be 
so indifferent to their duty as citizens as to allow 
corrupt men to control their party. 

He wished to arouse the young men of New 
York to a sense of their public responsibility. 
He was a natural leader and had great success 
in working with young men. 

During one campaign he organized a com- 
mittee of twenty to influence good citizens to 
go to the polls on election day, feeling sure 
that if good men voted, the right would win. 

His committee was a strange one. On it 
were some college men, a young college pro- 
fessor, the proprietor of a small cigar store, the 
editor of a little German newspaper, an Irish- 
man, a Jew, and a Catholic. 

But however they might differ in education, 
social standing, nationality, or religious views, 
they were all young, intelligent, enthusiastic, 
and devoted to their leader. 

In 1884 Mr. Roosevelt was sent as delegate 
to the National Republican Convention. Dur- 
ing the campaign that followed many of the 
independent Republicans with whom he had 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 2J 

been closely associated, left their party and used 
their influence to secure the election of Mr. 
Cleveland, who stood for civil-service reform. 

He incurred their severe censure by remain- 
ing true to his party. That year brought to a 
temporary close his political career. 

This period, so full of work for the public, had 
not been without great personal joy and sorrow 
for Mr. Roosevelt. In 1881 he married Miss 
Alice Lee, of Boston. In 1883 she died, leav- 
ing one daughter. 



IV. 

RANCH LIFE. 



The scene of Mr. Roosevelt's activity now 
shifted from Albany and New York to the great 
western plains. 

In the early half of the nineteenth century 
the plains extending from Mexico to Canada 
and from the Rocky Mountains to the wheat 
and corn States along the Mississippi, had given 
pasturage to great herds of buffalo. 

But the buffalo had disappeared before the 
hunter, and as the land was good for grazing 



28 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

and seemed of little value for anything else, 
the whole region was being converted into large 
stock ranches. 

Mr. Roosevelt had travelled in the West and 
had seen something of ranch life. Its freedom 
and adventure suited him. Its very hardships 
attracted him, for they were of the sort to try a 
man's endurance, and skill, and courage. 

He had all his life advocated a man's stand- 
ing on his own merit and receiving only the 
reward he deserved. He had done this himself, 
in college and in politics as much as possible. 

But the thought of going to a country where 
his family, his college education, and his social 
and political influence would count for nothing, 
where he must succeed wholly by virtue of his 
own strength, ability, and spirit, was bracing to 
him. 

He was eager to prove his arm as strong, his 
eye as true, his nerve as steady, as another's. 
Besides, he wanted to learn how much of rugged 
manliness there was in him to endure with 
fidelity and good cheer the toil, exposure, and 
privations of ranch life: how much of the Daniel 
Boone quality of staunchness he possessed. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 29 

Yet he had no idea of living in an unneces- 
sarily primitive manner, or of giving up more 
than necessary of the comforts, and pleasure of 
an educated man. 

His ranch was as well equipped and up to 
date as possible. It extended along both sides 
of the Little Missouri River, near the village of 
Medora. 

The ranch home was built in a glade thickly 
grown with cottonwood trees and underbrush. 
So wild was the place that deer sometimes 
came down to the river to drink, and wolves 
and cougars visited the cattle-pens at night. 
The nearest human habitation was ten miles 
away. 

The house was called " Elkhorn," because on 
the spot where it stood had been found two 
great pairs of elk horns closely interlocked, tell- 
ing the tale of a deadly struggle between two 
of the native monarchs of the wilderness. It 
was a long, low building, made of clean-hewn 
logs and roofed with shingles. 

Not far from the house were the sod-roofed 
sheds and stables, the cattle-pens, the horse cor- 
ral, and the kitchen garden. If the house was 



30 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

closed for a month or two and there was no 
man to keep the vegetation and the animals in 
check, they soon made themselves masters of 
the place. Grasses, weeds, and bushes sur- 
rounded the log buildings and flourished on 
the sod roof. 

Deer made themselves at home in the glade; 
Jack-rabbits, ferrets, and other small creatures 
burrowed their way into the house and built 
themselves nests in curious places — one chose 
the oven for its home. The wilderness claimed 
the place once more. 

Everything was, however, kept clean and in 
good repair while the house was occupied. 

Here the new ranchman practised the cow- 
boy's peculiar accomplishments, throwing the 
"rope," as the lasso is called by the northern 
cattlemen, and breaking broncos with a deter- 
mination that strained shoulders and even 
broken bones could not shake. 

He enjoyed the excitement of conquering a 
rebellious horse, of keeping his seat while the 
animal reared and pitched and plunged under 
him in vain efforts to throw him. 

The watching cow hands, who had been 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 3 1 

trained from boyhood to the work, were ready 
enough to laugh at any mishap that befell an 
eastern "tenderfoot." 

But this one bore laughter and jokes with 
good humor and usually managed to keep his 
patience and his saddle. 

Certainly he won the admiration of the cow- 
boys by his pluck and good temper, and their 
banter was meant and taken in good part. 
When his cowboy comrade remarked in an 
audible tone aside, as Mr. Roosevelt mounted 
for the first time a vicious horse, " The boss 
ain't no bronco buster," he intended more to 
amuse the "boys" than the listening stranger. 

The cowboy accomplishments were not easily 
acquired, and practice in them sometimes made 
the chief work of the ranchman's day 

But ordinarily he was up at dawn, winter and 
summer, and in the saddle immediately after a 
hearty breakfast. 

Often he went off on a hunting expedition 
to keep up the necessary supply of meat. But 
for the most part his days were spent "quirt" 
in hand, on the back of a firey little mustang 
careering over the plains. 



32 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

Now he rode simply to tame the wildness 
of a long unused horse. Again, he went in 
search of a lost bronco. Sometimes he made 
a tour of the ranch to see how the cattle were 
faring" and how the men were doing- their work. 
Or he rode merely to make himself more famil- 
iar with the country where his cattle grazed, a 
country of buttes, coulees, and canyons. 

The monotony of such a trip was apt to be 
varied by an encounter with a charging steer ; 
the discovery of an unbranded yearling, or the 
rescue, by means of ropes, of a cow helplessly 
stranded in a mud hole or in some pool of 
quicksand. 

Though such employments were exhilarating 
to the newcomer, they were humdrum to those 
familiar with the excitement of a " round-up." 

On the western cattle ranches, where there 
are no fences to separate one range from 
another, the cattle belonging to neighboring 
ranchmen sometimes herd together. In order 
that a man may know his own cattle he has 
them branded with a certain sign or mark. 

Wherever he finds an animal with his mark 
upon it he may claim it. If an unbranded 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 33 

animal is found among his cattle, it is branded 
with his mark. Every spring there is a great 
round-up, when the cattle belonging to differ- 
ent owners are separated and the calves 
branded. 

This is the most stirring time in the ranch- 
man's year, and though it necessitates hard, 
dangerous work, is looked forward to with 
eagerness by the cowboys. Mr. Roosevelt 
took an active part in the round-up, sharing 
with the cowboys its hardships and risks. 

Late in May he started with a dozen or more 
" cow-punchers " for the appointed meeting- 
place of the cattle men of that district. 

They took with them a four-horse wagon 
loaded with food and bedding, in charge of 
the indispensable cook and teamster, and a 
large saddle band. Every man must have 
eight or ten horses for the days of hard riding 
to come. 

After their winter's rest, " Dynamite Jimmy," 
"Fall Back," " Bulberry Johnny," "Wire 
Fence," "Water Skip," and all the rest of 
the broncos were wild and almost unmanage- 
able. 



34 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

There was a great tossing of manes and 
kicking of heels as sorrel, pinto, roan, and bay 
clattered along over the plain. 

Roosevelt, with flapping sombrero, flannel 
hunting shirt, bright neck-cloth, and leather 
leggings, with a "quirt" in gloved hand and 
a revolver at belt, mounted on his wiry little 
horse in a gigantic stock saddle with dangling 
lasso, looked like any cowboy. 

Perhaps the jackets bundled under the 
"slickers" or rain-coats behind the saddles 
of the other riders did not all contain so com- 
plete a washing outfit and change of under- 
wear, but that distinction, though significant, 
was not noticeable. 

When the company reached the camp agreed 
upon for the meeting-place of the riders from 
the various ranches in the neighborhood, there 
was little to do but lounge in the shade, tell 
stories, and break horses, until all had assem- 
bled. Then the foreman of the round-up gave 
his orders, and work began without delay. 

As early as three o'clock in the morning the 
cook's harsh summons roused the men from 
their sleep on the ground. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 35 

Then, in the dim gray of dawn, there was a 
lively pulling on of boots, a tying of blankets 
into bundles, followed by a rush for the camp fire, 
where each man helped himself to black coffee, 
biscuit, beans, and fried pork, and ate what he 
could before the foreman's call, " Come, boys, 
catch your horses !" sounded. 

The first work of the day was to drive the 
cattle in from the surrounding country. The 
district was parceled out to bands made up of 
a dozen riders each, under the direction of a 
division foreman. The members of a band 
rode together until they reached the section 
allotted to them. 

Then the foreman sent out two riders, one 
to the right, one to the left, to find and drive 
in all the cattle within certain limits. The 
rest of the company rode on until they had 
come to the boundary of the section to be 
" cleaned up " by the first riders ; here two 
more were sent out. 

This continued until every rider had the 
field for his morning's work assigned him. 
In open, level country it was easy to find the 
cattle, but on irregular ground like the Bad 



36 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

Lands along the Little Missouri long and hard 
riding was necessary. 

These reckless rides before the sun was up, 
over green field, up butte, and clown coulee, 
gave Mr. Roosevelt keen pleasure. His pulses 
bounded as his daring, sure-footed horse cleared 
a chasm or went plunging and sliding down 
some slippery ravine. 

When he saw a herd of cattle grazing in 
a coulee he took the shortest route toward 
them, shouting " ei-koh-h-h !" and started them 
running down the valley to the main stream, 
where they would be met by other riders and 
headed toward the camp. Then he would 
ride on without pausing until he felt certain 
that there were no more cattle in his terri- 
tory. 

Often, on coming into camp, he found as 
manv as two thousand cattle herded there. 
The eight hours of hard riding were only the 
beginning of the day's work. After a hur- 
ried dinner he mounted a fresh horse for the 
round-up. 

Most of the cowboys, on tough, spirited 
broncos, were stationed at intervals about the 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 37 



herd to round it up and keep any member from 
breaking away. 

Then two or three trained men, mounted 
on good "cutting" ponies, rode into the herd 
to "cut" or drive out the cows and calves or 
any unbranded animal. Each animal that was 
to be removed had to be driven slowly through 
the herd in such a way as not to excite the 
herd. 

When it reached the edge of the herd, wild 
riding was needed to keep other cattle from 
leavine the herd with the animal "cut out," 
and to keep it from rejoining the herd. 

The cattle separated from the main herd 
were formed into a new herd; the calves 
were roped and branded; and when this 
work was done, the herds were turned loose 
and started in the direction opposite to the 
one in which the cowboys were to continue 
their work. 

The spring round-up lasted about six weeks. 
When it was over, the time had come for the 
first round-up of beeves for market. This 
was conducted in much the same way. But 
now the four-year-old beeves instead of the 



38 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

cows and the calves were "cut out" of the 
herd. 

After the beef round-up the long, monoto- 
nous trail work of driving the herds to the 
nearest shipping point began. Progress had 
to be very slow in order that the cattle might 
reach the market in good condition. 

In the day-time they were driven in long lines. 
At night the cattle were bedded down by two 
cowboys who rode round and round the herd, 
driving the cattle into as small a circle as pos- 
sible, and continued to ride until the animals 
had lain down. 

The night was divided into watches, and two 
men at a time guarded the herd. They did 
this by riding round it in opposite directions, 
trusting their horses to find their way in the 
dark or to give them warning if any animal 
started to leave the herd. 

If the cattle were restless, the cowboys shouted 
and sang, as the sound of human voices seemed 
to soothe the wild creatures. 

Sometimes, in spite of all they could do to 
pacify them, the animals would take fright at 
the cry of a beast of prey or the rolling of 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 39 

thunder. The whole herd would be on its feet 
in an instant. 

The mass of flashing hides and horns and 
staring eyes would plunge forward. Then the 
cowboys rode like mad, now with, now athwart, 
the herd, guiding, checking, and at length con- 
trolling the terrified cattle. 

Mr. Roosevelt took his part in the round-up 
and in the trail work, mounted night guard in 
the rain, and rounded up stampeded herds. 

Later in the summer, however, there were 
times when cattle work was light, and even that 
energetic man was glad to keep away from the 
alkali plains where the gray sage bush and the 
gray earth baked in the August sun. 

On those days there was no place quite so 
inviting as the broad, shady veranda of the 
ranch house. There he sat in one of the big, 
comfortable rocking-chairs, content for a little 
while to be idle and do nothing but look off 
under the boughs of the stately, white-barked 
sycamores, across the river to the green bottom- 
lands and the brown bluffs rising in the distance. 

During the winter the cattle were left to range 
at will, so long as they did not " drift" too near 



40 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

the land of the Indians. To prevent this, camps 
were established at intervals along the danger- 
line, where riders kept guard to drive back the 
cattle if they ventured too near. 

It was also the duty of these men to drive 
in and care for the weak or disabled animals 
after a blizzard and to see where the herds 
found shelter. 

After serving his turn at a line camp and rid- 
ine through cruel, numbing cold that found its 
way through wolf-skin coat and buck-skin shirt, 
Mr. Roosevelt experienced a sense of real joy 
when he came in sight of the smoking chimneys 
of Elkhorn and saw the firelight flash through 
the windows red on the snowy bushes. 

Thoughts of the roaring logs in the wide fire- 
place, of the table laden with smoking platters 
of broiled venison and roast chicken, tureens 
of steaming potatoes and tomatoes, bowls of 
milk and wild-plum jelly, and plates piled with 
flaky bread made by the foreman's wife were 
doubly pleasant because of the days passed in 
the cheerless, dug-out line camp. 




THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 4 1 

V. 
"THE WILDERNESS HUNTER/* 

While Mr. Roosevelt lived on his ranch he 
did a great deal of hunting. Besides hunting 
for sport, he made it his business to keep the 
ranch table supplied with game. 

Most of the large beasts of prey had been 
driven from the neighborhood before he came 
to live there, and he shot no grizzlies later than 
1884. But after a day's hunt on the plains he 
usually came home with two or three antelope, 
and the hills nearby were full of deer. 

Mr. Roosevelt was too true a hunter, how- 
ever, to be satisfied with game that was near 
and plentiful. Difficulty and danger added 
greatly to the zest of the sport. Often he went 
on a long hunt alone or with some old hunter 
for a companion. 

When spending several weeks in the moun- 
tains, he was glad to have two or three good 
hunters with him, a band of horses to carry the 
trophies and the camp equipment, and a cook 
and packer to do the camp work. 

On almost any fine fall morning, when the 



42 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

ground was still crisp with frost and the sun 
was only beginning to redden the east, he 
might be seen riding off on his favorite hunt- 
ing horse, " Manitou," with perhaps a deer 
hound or two at his heels. 

On these trips he wore a buck-skin hunting 
tunic and leggings and a broad-brimmed hat 
of the same neutral hue, that he might be as 
inconspicuous as possible. 

He carried with him compass, field-glasses, 
matches, salt, and a strip of smoked venison, 
for he knew what it was to be lost in the wil- 
derness. Usually he could depend upon his 
faithful Winchester for meat, however. 

He let his horse bound along at a lively 
pace, but he was not in so great a hurry that 
he could not enjoy his ride. He was con- 
scious of the strong, swift motion of the horse, 
of the freshness and coolness of the air, the 
rising sun, the long shadows, the wheeling of 
the Clark's Crows and the Wisky Jacks, and 
the notes of the late song-birds. All this 
made a good beginning for a day of keen de- 
light. 

When he neared the place where he hoped 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 43 

to find game he tethered his horse, and, in 
moccasined feet, went clambering up some 
deer trail swiftly and silently, keeping a sharp 
lookout all the while for signs of game. 

Footprints, the beds of the deer, and freshly 
nibbled twigs gave him encouragement while 
he climbed the steep trail through the w 7 oods. 
Occasionally coming out on some high cliff, 
he searched the landscape with his field- 
glasses. 

When at length he caught sight of a deer, 
his eagerness increased and he commenced a 
cautious approach. After an hour's breathless 
climbing and crawling he might come within 
gunshot of the game, only to see it take fright 
and go bounding safely off before he could 
take aim. 

Then the whole process had to be repeated, 
— the search for signs, the following of the 
sign, the cautious, laborious " stalk," — but at 
last came the moment of triumph, when the 
lordly buck with splendid antlers stood not 
one hundred yards away, and he knew, as he 
took steady aim, that the game was his. 

Mr. Roosevelt is a good shot. He is proud 



44 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

of his record in shooting running antelope and 
in hitting at long range, but he declares that 
his success in hunting is due more largely to 
" dogged perseverance and patient persist- 
ence" than to skill. 

Perhaps the hard work and persistence were 
necessary to make him appreciate to the full 
the satisfaction of bringing down the game. 

Certainly, though he enjoyed as much as 
any man coming into camp with three hardly 
earned elk tongues hanging at his belt, he 
took no pleasure in shooting deer swimming 
in water or floundering in snow. 

He saw little sport in fire-hunting or in 
hunting the w 7 hite-tail deer with hounds. He 
liked to still-hunt the black-tail deer anions the 
wooded hills ; to follow the antelope over the 
green prairies in spring and early summer; to 
seek the sure-footed mountain goat among 
snowy crags ; to track in snow r -shoes the broad- 
hoofed caribou, and to surprise the moose in 
its watery haunts. 

But none of these pleasures excelled that 
of elk hunting in the mountain parks of the 
Rockies. Often he pitched his camp by some 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 45 

mountain lake or rushing stream, and from 
there hunted the heights for elk. 

It was good, after a day's hunt, to come into 
a comfortable camp at night, to sit down to a 
feast of " roasted elk venison, trout, and flap- 
jacks with maple syrup," then to lounge about 
the fire of pitchy stumps telling the experi- 
ences of the day or recounting former hunting 
exploits. 

It was pleasant to lie at night in a warm, 
deer-skin sleeping bag, breathing the keen air, 
and hearing, above the roar of the green moun- 
tain torrent, the high, bugle-like call of the elk. 
But to these men the best part of all was the 
day's work, the stealthy following of that ring- 
ing call until within gunshot of the princely 
buck with his tow T ering antlers. 

These wild scenes made the hunter think, by 
contrast, of his far-away home. He talked to 
his Indian guide about his children, and was 
pleased with the stories the red man told in re- 
turn about his little papooses. When hunting 
on his son's birthday, Mr. Roosevelt marked 
the antlers of the first elk he shot, to be sent 
to the little fellow for his very own. 



46 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

A little risk or danger is perhaps a more at- 
tractive element in a hunt than difficulty, and 
Mr. Roosevelt has made special expeditions to 
hunt grizzly bears, cougars, and other beasts of 
prey. 

If a grizzly is wounded and charges, it fre- 
quently makes an ugly foe. But sometimes a 
big grizzly bear gives a good hunter no more 
trouble than a rabbit. Mr. Roosevelt tells how, 
on one occasion, after following the track of a 
bear through the dense forest by the bent and 
broken twigs, and by the scratches on the 
trees where the bear had clawed the bark, 
he came upon a huge grizzly in its bed in 
the brush. 

The bear, disturbed by the hunter's approach, 
suddenly rose on its haunches, but finding itself 
at bay, crouched on all fours with the hair brist- 
ling up along its neck. 

Before Bruin could spring, Mr. Roosevelt's 
steady hand and sure aim had sent a bullet 
between his eyes and into his brain, and the 
beast fell on his side dead. Not twenty sec- 
onds had elapsed from the time of sighting the 
bear until the monster lay dead. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 47 

At another time Mr. Roosevelt's first shot 
pierced the lower end of a great big bears 
heart, but the creature turned, blowing blood 
and foam from his mouth, and with a hoarse 
roar came bounding and crashing through the 
bushes toward the hunter. 

The latter got another fair aim as the bear 
leaped over the trunk of a fallen tree. The 
bullet struck fair, but the huge creature came 
plunging on, blind with rage and pain. 

There was not a moment to lose — another 
shot, a hasty spring to one side, and Mr. Roose- 
velt saw through the smoke the clumsy brute 
carried past him by the rush of the charge di- 
rected at him. Before the thwarted animal 
could turn, another bullet brought him down. 
For a man with less nerve than Mr. Roosevelt 
possessed the experience would have been a 
perilous one. 

On a hunting expedition made later Mr. 
Roosevelt shot fourteen mountain lions. He 
learned much about the habits and haunts of 
these animals, so that the expedition counted 
for more than pelts. 

Even in the wilderness Mr. Roosevelt pre- 



48 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

served his sense of responsibility for the public 
good. One October, when he was out with a 
small party for the purpose of hunting ante- 
lope, the hunt was interrupted by a prairie-fire. 
The camp was easily and quickly moved to a 
place of safety. 

Then the party fell to work to put out the 
fire. The wind was so strong that they made 
but little headway against it, and when night 
came it was still burning, looking, he said, like 
a " great red snake writhing sideways across 
the prairie." But now the wind had gone 
down, and they took up the work with fresh 
courage and zeal. 

After the fashion of cowboys fighting a prai- 
rie-fire, they shot a steer, chopped it in half 
lengthwise, and tied ropes to its legs ; then two 
of the men mounted their horses, and each 
taking a rope, rode to the fire line. One 
spurred his horse across the narrow, but 
fiercely hot, path of flame, then turning, they 
rode parallel with it, dragging their heavy, 
moist burden over the fire and smothering 
it. 

The other men followed them, beating out 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 49 

with raincoats or blankets the flames that had 
not been extinguished by the riders. The ride 
over rough, unfamiliar ground, in the heat and 
smoke of the prairie-fire, with the steer's car- 
cass, now catching on something and pulling 
the ropes taut, now bouncing at the very heels 
of the frightened horses, was unpleasant and 
exhausting. 

Men and horses were both well worn out 
when a ravine was reached, beyond which the 
fire divided in many lines that wriggled away 
through the blackness like endless fire-serpents. 
So the workers had not the satisfaction of put- 
ting out entirely the fire, but they had saved 
thousands of acres of precious pasturage for 
the cattle. 

In this free out-of-door life the best of fel- 
lowship existed. Mr. Roosevelt could appre- 
ciate a good story, a good hunter, a good man, 
even when polish was wanting. He took more 
pleasure in finding the good and manly quali- 
ties in the weather-beaten men of mountain 
and plain than in criticizing their manners. 

He respected them for what they were and 
made them feel it. Though he was not ready 



50 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

to find fault with the men he lived among, he 
had no idea of living on the same intellectual 
level with them. His ranch house was well 
furnished with books, and he spent much of 
his time there reading and writing. When on 
a long excursion of any sort, he usually had a 
good book in his pocket. 

He tells how once, when in mid-winter, he 
was hunting a horse among the hills he fell in 
with a strange cowboy, made friends with him, 
and camped with him in a deserted hut. 
There they made a fire of logs and were quite 
cozy. Mr. Roosevelt whiled away the hours 
during a storm by reading Hamlet aloud. 
The cowboy was much interested, and de- 
lighted the reader by his shrewd and appre- 
ciative comments. 

In the large, rough-walled living room of 
the ranch house, bear-skins and stag-heads re- 
minded one of the wildness of the region, and 
made the crackling fire seem all the warmer 
and the comfortable rocking-chair more com- 
fortable as the ranchman sat reading Cooper's 
stories of Indian life or John Burroughs' essays 
on nature, while the snow blew outside. This 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 5 I 

room was the scene of the writing of much 
that Mr. Roosevelt has published on western 
life. 



VI. 
TROUBLESOME NEIGHBORS. 

Mr. Roosevelt found his western neighbors 



taking views of law and justice rather different 
from those to which he was accustomed. They 
did not care much for courts and legal formal- 
ities. 

This does not mean that they allowed crimes 
to go unpunished, that they allowed their horses 
and cattle to be stolen or their friends murdered 
with indifference. It means that their punish- 
ments were not always lawful. 

They were so prompt to punish crime that if 
they believed a man to be a thief or a murderer 
they did not always wait for him to have a full, 
fair trial. Indeed, they frequently took affairs 
into their own hands, and without a pretense 
of trial, lynched a man they believed to be 
guilty. 

In their haste and anger they made mistakes 



52 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

and inflicted heavy punishments for petty 
offenses, or put to death men they afterward 
found to be innocent of the crime with which 
they were charged. 

Mr. Roosevelt had an opportunity to show 
the community to what trouble and pains he 
would go to see the law enforced in a lawful 
way. 

In a country where cattle and horses were 
allowed to run loose, to steal them was easy. 
It was absolutely necessary, then, that horse- 
thieves, when found, should have been punished 
with such severity as to make even those men 
who were disposed to be dishonest and lawless 
let their neighbors' property alone. 

Still in so wild a country there were always 
some who were as daring and desperate as dis- 
honest, and horse-stealing and cattle-killing 
were not rare on the Little Missouri. A man 
was, therefore, obliged to show himself ready 
and able to take care of himself and his belong- 
ings or these reckless fellows soon discovered 
his weakness and made him their prey. 

When Mr. Roosevelt first came to the ranch, 
partly because of his gentlemanly manners, and 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 5 3 

perhaps, too, because he wore eye-glasses and 
looked like a student, he was regarded as an 
easy victim. But the first blusterer who sought 
to pick a quarrel with him found him so ready to 
defend himself that he apologized for his rude- 
ness and henceforth avoided the college athlete. 

If any one attempted to interfere with the 
new ranchman's cattle, he found he had no easy 
man to deal with. In a short time Mr. Roose- 
velt was generally understood to be able to 
look after his own interests. 

About twenty miles up the river three men 
Jived together in a shack. They had taken 
care to give the master of Elkhorn no trouble, 
but they were rough and idle, and were be- 
lieved by some to be horse-thieves. Their 
reputation w T as so bad that it seemed unsafe for 
them to stay in the neighborhood. 

One morning, early in spring, when the ice 
was just breaking up on the Little Missouri 
and the river was brimming to overflow with 
swift, muddy water, one of the workmen came 
into the ranch-house and announced to his em- 
ployer that the boat with which they were ac- 
customed to cross the river was gone. 



54 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

It had evidently been stolen, for the rope by 
which it had been tied was cut and a red mitten 
with a leather palm was found close by. 

On investigation, Mr. Roosevelt found that 
the three men living up the river had disap- 
peared. Then he had no doubt that they had 
stolen his boat. It was a shrewd trick on the 
part of the thieves, for it was a good boat and 
there was not another craft of any sort in the 
country. 

The river was open enough to make travel 
down-stream easy and rapid, w T hile the land 
along the river was still almost impassable for 
horse or man. They, therefore, seemed safe 
from pursuit. 

Mr. Roosevelt wanted the boat; he also 
wanted to have the cowardly law-breakers pun- 
ished. He usually found a way to accomplish 
what he wanted. 

With the help of his ranch hands he built a 
flat-bottomed scow. It was clumsy, but water- 
tight and roomy, and could be managed readily 
enough eoine down-stream. The boat was 
loaded with flour, beans, bacon, coffee, and 
cooking utensils, and good warm bedding. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 55 

The weather was bitterly cold, but without 
loss of time Mr. Roosevelt and two strapping 
cowboys set out to follow the thieves. The 
rapid current swept the boat alo'ng without the 
help of paddle or oar, and it required but little 
exertion to guide it. 

The men got numb and cold sitting still 
hour after hour. At night they landed and 
made a roaring camp-fire. The next morning 
they resumed their journey in the scow. 

On the morning of the third day, which was 
to be the eventful day of the journey for them, 
the river was so full of slush and ice that they 
did not care to venture upon it and waited 
until the sun was high before starting. 

Seeing signs of deer and fearing they should 
need meat before they had finished their under- 
taking, they spent the morning hunting. For- 
tunately, they shot two deer. 

The country through which the winding river 
carried them was broken with seams and chasms 
and heaped with ice and snow, so that a horse 
could not travel over it. The thieves must, 
therefore, feel quite safe. Probably they were 
making no great haste to go down the river, 



56 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

and any turn might bring Roosevelt and his 
companions upon them. 

Accordingly, they made as little noise as 
possible and kept a sharp watch. 

If they could approach the culprits without 
giving them warning, there would be little dif- 
ficulty in taking them prisoners. But if the 
thieves took alarm and were on their guard, 
Mr. Roosevelt and his two comrades would 
have to contend against three fully armed, des- 
perate men. 

In the afternoon one of the men in the scow 
pointed toward the shore. The others looked 
eagerly in the direction he indicated, and saw 
a thin blue column of smoke rising in the clear, 
keen air not far from them. It was evidently 
the smoke of a camp-fire. Rounding a shoul- 
der of a little cove they saw the boat they 
sought. 

More anxious to protect themselves from the 
bitter wind than to command a view up the 
river, the overconfident rascals had made their 
camp behind an embankment, and the men in 
the scow believed their approach had not been 
discovered. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. $J 

They threw off their coats, and with long 
strokes guided the boat to the shore. As soon 
as it touched firm ice Mr. Roosevelt jumped 
out and ran up the bank with his gun to pro- 
tect the others should they be attacked while 
trying to moor the boat. 

Then, with tense faces, the three cautiously 
made their way toward the line of smoke. 
They at length came upon one of their old 
neighbors sitting alone by the fire. 

If he had heard any sound, he probably 
supposed it to be made by his friends re- 
turning from the hunt; at any rate, he did 
not look up until three rifles were leveled at 
his head and it was too late even to grasp the 
gun lying on the ground beside him. He was 
greatly surprised, but surrendered without re- 
sistance. 

Mr. Roosevelt set one of his cowboys to 
watch the prisoner, and with the other lay in 
wait for the absent thieves. 

After an hour's watching they saw them 
coming carelessly across the field with their 
rifles on their shoulders. Then Roosevelt and 
his comrade cowboy crouched behind a little 



58 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

knoll and waited until the hunters, unconscious 
of danger, had come within gun-shot. Then 
they sprang to their feet with leveled rifles, 
shouting " Hands up!" One of the men 
obeyed with trembling knees. 

The other, the ring-leader of the three, held 
his gun and looked fierce. But when Roose- 
velt advanced, aiming directly at his breast, 
the fellow dropped his gun and threw up his 
hands. 

The men had been captured easily enough ; 
to keep them was a more difficult matter. For 
while Roosevelt was very sure his prisoners 
were guilty and was determined to lodge them 
in jail, he was bent upon doing it in a lawful 
and humane way. 

He feared that if he bound their hands and 
feet securely enough to hold them, those mem- 
bers would freeze in the bitter cold. He must 
find another way. He ordered the prisoners 
to take off their boots. 

The ground was rough and covered with 
prickly plants, and a man would soon become 
lame walking in bare feet in that region, and 
the most reckless would scarcely try to escape 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 59 

without shoes. He divided the nights into 
watches, and each member of his party, turn 
about, guarded the shoeless captives. 

The next day all proceeded down the river. 
They had not gone far when their progress was 
stopped by an immense ice jam that blocked 
the river as far as the eye could see. The only 
thing to do was to follow in the wake of the 
slowly moving ice. 

Much of the time was spent in camp. The 
Indians had been hunting along the river and 
had driven away the game. The supply of 
meat gave out, and the company was reduced 
to eating bread made of flour and muddy river- 
water without yeast three times a day. 

At length, just as the flour was all used up, 
they reached a ranch-house and bought sup- 
plies. Here Mr. Roosevelt dismissed his com- 
panions and sent them back with the boat. 
He hired a " prairie schooner," two good 
horses, and a driver, and took the thieves to 
the nearest town. 

Now that he was alone he could not allow 
himself too near his captives lest they should 
seize him unawares and disarm him. So he 



Co THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

trudged behind the wagon with his Win- 
chester on his shoulder, all the way to Dick- 
inson. 

There he delivered his prisoners to the 
sheriff and received pay, as deputy sheriff, for 
making the arrest, and mileage for the three 
hundred miles he had traveled to make it. 

Through all this trying journey Mr. Roose- 
velt's manner to the men who were making 
him all this trouble had been so humane and 
just as to win their confidence. They quickly 
learned that if they attempted to escape, they 
would be dealt with without ceremony, but 
that as long as they behaved themselves well, 
they would receive kind treatment. 

While in camp all chatted together in so 
friendly a manner that an observer would have 
supposed that each was in the company by his 
own choice. 

The prisoners seemed to cherish no resent- 
ment toward the man who had been so per- 
sistent in bringing them to justice. One of 
them, afterward, writing to Mr. Roosevelt from 
prison in Bismarck, said with an amusing air 
of good-fellowship : 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 6 1 

" I have read a good many of your sketches 
of ranch life in the papers since I have been 
here, and they interest me deeply. Should 
you stop over at Bismarck this fall make a 
call to the prison, I should be glad to meet 
you." 

Mr. Roosevelt's red neighbors troubled him 
little. He was careful to give them no cause 
for offense, and he had little to do with them 
as a people, although he knew some Indian 
guides well, having hunted and camped with 
them. 

He had one rather unpleasant experience 
with Indians one day while riding alone across 
the prairies. A band of mounted red-skins, 
seeing him from afar, rode toward him at full 
speed, shouting and brandishing their weapons 
in a war-like manner. 

He coolly dismounted and stood behind his 
faithful horse, Manitou. When the warriors 
came within rifle range Roosevelt lowered his 
gun and aimed at the nearest rider. 

At this the braves dropped to the opposite 
sides of their ponies to avoid being shot, and 
rode off, clinging with one leg to their horses. 



62 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

When they had got some distance away, 
Roosevelt saw them stop and confer together. 
Then one of their number rode back alone, 
waving a blanket by way of a flag of truce, and 
holding a paper out toward him in a friendly 
manner, but he would not allow the Indian to 
come near. 

They would probably have been glad to take 
his horse, possibly his scalp, could they have 
done so without risk to themselves. But fail- 
ing to frighten or to deceive the lone rider, 
they let him go his way in peace. 

In all the experiences of frontier life Mr. 
Roosevelt proved himself to have much of the 
Daniel Boone quality of staunchness. He 
valued highly the manly virtues developed 
by work and sport in this untamed country. 

He wished more young men would take an 
interest in wilderness life. He was president 
and one of the prime movers in the Boone and 
Crockett club, whose purpose was to rouse* an 
interest in exploration and in American game, 
to gain and spread information concerning 
game, to have good game laws passed and 
enforced, and to protect the forests. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 63 

VII. 
IMPORTANT OFFICES. 

Whil^ Mr. Roosevelt was living in the West 
he was not forgotten in New York. In 1886 
the Democrats were driven to nominate a can- 
didate for the mayoralty who would meet the 
demands of the public for better government 
and better city officer^ 

They selected A. S. Hewett, an able and 
respected man. The selection met with so 
much applause that the Republicans saw the 
necessity of finding a candidate of stainless 
record and acknowledged force of character to 
run against him. 

They nominated Theodore Roosevelt, then 
only twenty-eight years old. He accepted the 
party's nomination, saying that if he were 
elected he would serve the Republican Party 
by serving the city to the best of his abil- 
ity. 

The Labor Party put into the field as its 
candidate Henry George, a man of such promi- 
nence that his election was looked upon as 
quite possible. Any one of the three candi- 



64 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

dates was well worthy of the honor and the 
responsibility, but Mr. Hewett had the support 
of the strongest party organization in the city, 
and naturally won the election. 

Mr. Roosevelt's work as Assemblyman in 
Albany had attracted wide-spread attention. 
His candidacy for the mayorship of New York 
brought him again before the public. His 
efforts to secure honest legislation and civil- 
service reform were being more and more 
appreciated. 

It is, therefore, not strange that in 1889 he 
was appointed by President Harrison as a 
member of the National Civil-Service Com- 
mission. 

He found that his new office called for 
ceaseless watchfulness and great industry and 
courage. 

Civil-service offices had so long been treated 
as party spoils that many took it as a matter 
of course that when the Democratic Party came 
into power all Republican employees in the 
post-office, the custom house, or any depart- 
ment of the civil service should be turned out 
to make place for Democrats, and when the 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 65 

Republican Party was reinstated there should 
be a redistribution of the offices among Repub- 
licans. 

It is important to know what the political 
views of one's Representative or Senator are, 
as he must vote for one in Congress. But a 
man's politics have nothing to do with his 
being a good postmaster or mail clerk. 

And Mr. Roosevelt and all advocates of 
civil-service reform thought that the men best 
able to do the work should be given such posi- 
tions without respect to party, and that they 
should be discharged only for good reason and 
not because of a change in administration. 

They wished to see the merit system estab- 
lished for two reasons : First, because it would 
give the nation better public service, since it 
would prevent the employment of incompetent 
men and would also prevent the confusion and 
blundering that were sure to follow a complete 
change in the working force of any department 
of the civil service. 

Secondly, because under the spoils system 
public offices could be used as bribes to induce 
men who wanted them to use their influence 



66 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

and votes for the election of men from whom 
they hoped to receive an appointment. 

That the spoils system made it possible to 
use the taxes paid by the people for good 
public service, to reward party " bosses," and 
to corrupt voters w 7 as the greatest evil of the 
system in Mr. Roosevelt's estimation. 

Certain classes of public service were pro- 
tected by the Civil-Service Law, which re- 
quired that vacancies should be filled by those 
who stood highest in competitive examinations 
open to the public. The Commission had to 
provide for the examinations and had to see 
that the law was not evaded or violated. 

Mr. Roosevelt found this no easy task. He 
says that it was usually necessary to goad the 
heads of departments continually to see that 
they did not allow their subordinates to evade 
the law, and that it was very difficult to get 
either the President or the head of a depart- 
ment to punish those subordinates who had 
evaded it. 

But he neither relaxed his watchfulness nor 
shrank from an unpleasant duty, and was re- 
markably successful in enforcing the law. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 6? 

He not only sought to enforce the law, but 
also to extend its application to additional 
classes of service, and was instrumental in 
bringing thousands of places under its pro- 
vision. 

So thorough and able was the work he did 
as Civil-Service Commissioner that President 
Harrison said, " If he had no other record than 
his service as an employee of the Civil-Service 
Commission he would be deserving of the 
nation's gratitude and confidence." 

President Cleveland reappointed Mr. Roose- 
velt, and accepted with regret his resignation 
in May, 1895. 

Mr. Roosevelt left one difficult task to per- 
form one yet more difficult. He had been 
made President of the Police Board of New 
York city. The government of the city had 
been lax, and the liquor law had been a source 
of constant trouble. 

If a law-breaking saloon-keeper had his 
saloon open after hours or on Sunday, he was 
sometimes visited by a policeman, a dishonest 
one, — and there were a number of this kind on 
the police force when Mr. Roosevelt was ap- 



68 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

pointed President of the Police Board, — who 
threatened to arrest him ; if, however, he paid 
the officer liberally, the arrest would not be 
made. 

Thus the law, instead of being enforced to 
secure good government, was made to serve 
as a device by which money could be extorted 
from the law-breaking liquor-sellers. When 
Mr. Roosevelt went into office, he declared 
that he would enforce the law. 

People said this could not be done : the 
liquor law was too strict ; it had been framed 
to please the impractical good, without any 
idea of its being actually enforced. He re- 
plied that he w 7 as not responsible for the law ; 
that his business was to enforce it, and not to 
make or unmake the law. He went to work 
vigorously to improve the police force. 

He dismissed a large number of policemen 
and employed in their places men who had 
physical strength, a reasonable degree of intel- 
ligence, and a good moral character. 

He made the entire force understand that 
neglect of duty or acceptance of bribes from 
dishonest saloon-keepers would not be toler- 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 69 

ated. Not content with issuing orders based 
on knowledge gained from others, he went in 
person to see how his subordinates were doing 
their duty. 

Like General Grant, Mr. Roosevelt pos- 
sessed the great and distinguished trait of 
being ever present to stimulate, encourage, 
and reward those who were anxious and quick 
to excel in doing their duty, as well as to 
punish those who were slack and inattentive 
to their duties. 

The two men, by their ever-present presence, 
their fearless courage, and indomitable will set 
an example which the men under their charge 
were quick to notice and follow. 

Many a policeman sleeping on his post was 
roused in the middle of the night and opened 
his eyes to find the President of the Board 
smiling upon him with rather grim friendli- 
ness. The new President's face soon became 
known to the entire force, and his name made 
the lazy, unpainstaking officer quake. 

But most of the policemen were glad of the 
change. It was less unbearable to be rebuked 
for violation of the law than for obedience to 



JO THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

it, as had often happened in the days when the 
offender, rather than the offense, was consid- 
ered in the police court. 

Then, too, while Mr. Roosevelt was severe 
with neglect of duty, he was just, and was 
ready to listen to every man's defense of him- 
self. Furthermore, he was generous in his 
acknowledgment of good service or personal 
courage. He made the men feel that he was 
greatly interested in their welfare, and that he 
would do his very best for them. 

Hitherto, if a policeman's uniform was soiled 
or torn in making an arrest, the policeman had 
to get a new one at his own expense. Mr. 
Roosevelt saw that this requirement alone was 
enough to discourage bold and aggressive 
action on the part of the police when dealing 
with desperate cases, and brought it about that 
a uniform spoiled in public service was paid for 
at the expense of the public. 

The policemen soon learned that he would 
stand by an officer who got into trouble 
through the conscientious, fearless perform- 
ance of his duty, but that he would not tol- 
erate brutality on the part of an officer. Un- 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



necessary clubbing in making arrests or in 
times of riot was stopped. 

There were frequent conflicts between the 
policemen and the strikers. 

Mr. Roosevelt's official duty ended in seeing 
that the police-officer prevented disorder, but 
he was always ready to do more than the law 
required. He called a meeting of the strikers 
to see if they could not come to some under- 
standing. His own direct, manly, determined 
manner of addressing them won their respect 
and applause, and he was able to do much to 
prevent riot and blood-shed. 

In a very short time Mr. Roosevelt worked 
a complete reformation in the city police ser- 
vice. The star on the blue coat of the officer 
came to be regarded by evil-doers as the 
emblem of punishment, and by the wronged 
and helpless as the promise of help and pro- 
tection. 

The policemen caught something of the sol- 
dierly spirit of Theodore Roosevelt, the Presi- 
dent of the Hoard, something of his zeal for 
work, and they made law and order prevail in 
New York City. 



72 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

VIII. 

WAR THREATENS. 

Mr. Roosevelt's life has been a continual 
development. When he has accomplished one 
difficult undertaking, he has not been satisfied 
to rest with that, but he has been eager to press 
forward to some new wx>rk that called into play 
other energies than those already exercised. 

When, therefore, in 1897, he was appointed 
Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he returned to 
Washington and took up the responsibilities 
of that office with a high degree of satisfaction, 
as the navy was to him an unexplored country. 

His w r ork brought him in touch with the 
new President and the members of his cabinet. 
He was especially glad to be again at the 
national capital and in daily communication 
with the men at the head of the Government, 
because he felt that there was a strong possi- 
bility that the United States would soon be 
engaged in war with Spain. 

For our neighbors, the Cubans, were fight- 
ing at our very doors against their Spanish 
oppressors. The bravery and persistence of 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 73 

their struggle for freedom in the face of most 
terrible suffering and discouragement roused 
the sympathy of the American people. 

Roosevelt was one of those who did not 
wish to stop at sympathy. It is not his nature 
to be a non-participant. He believed there 
were circumstances that made war a duty, and 
that now it was the duty of the strong nation 
to help the weak, of the United States to step 
in and by force of arms stop the cruel war by 
which Spain sought to crush the starving 
Cubans. 

He would drive from American soil the flag 
first planted in this hemisphere, that had once 
stood for intelligent progress and civilization, 
but that had become the emblem of unintelli- 
gent tyranny and had forfeited its right to 
wave in its ancient place. 

He knew there were a great many who felt 
just as he did. He believed the people, espe- 
cially in the West, were ready for war. And 
in case there should be war, the navy would 
be a most important factor. 

The seas must be crossed to reach the Span- 
ish possessions and carry the war into the 



74 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

enemy's country. The navy would be de- 
pended upon to defend the thousands of miles 
of United States sea-coast and the rich, unfor- 
tified cities by the sea. 

Mr. Roosevelt fully appreciated the import- 
ance of his new office. With his usual enthu- 
siasm he brought his talent for work to bear 
upon naval affairs. Nothing seemed too dif- 
ficult or complicated for his industry to com- 
pass. No detail was too small to deserve his 
attention. 

His intelligence and energy soon made 
themselves felt throughout the Department. 
He sought information ; he gave advice ; he 
made investigations ; he drew up a masterly 
navy report — all with characteristic vim. 

He despatched more business than two ordi- 
nary men. It is said he rarely sat down. 
Those who called at his office found his ante- 
room full of men who had just seen him or 
were waiting their turn for a few moments' 
interview. 

His waste-paper basket was piled high with 
freshly discarded letters ; his desk was strewn 
with maps and documents ; he almost inva- 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 75 

riably remained on his feet throughout an in- 
terview, giving concentrated attention to each 
matter that was brought under his considera- 
tion. 

It would not do for the Naval Department 
to wait until war was actually declared. The 
navy must be ready in case war should be 
declared. Assistant Secretary Roosevelt had, 
therefore, many important subjects to consider. 

He had plans for forming a squadron of 
war-ships and cruisers that they might practise 
maneuvers together and become accustomed 
to acting in concert; he had plans for coal- 
ing the Asiatic Squadron, and for furnishing 
extra transports and cruisers. He advocated 
strengthening the navy and making the gun- 
ners efficient through target practice, even at a 
cost that seemed to many extravagant. 

His idea was to have the navy ready for 
quick, decided action when the crisis came. 

After business was over for the day he found 
relaxation in the society of congenial friends. 
He preferred, especially, the companionship of 
those who, like himself, were eager for war with 
Spain. 



76 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

Among his friends there was one with whom 
he had become acquainted only since his 
appointment as Assistant Secretary of the 
Navy, but for whom he felt a strong admira- 
tion and affection. 

This was Dr. Leonard Wood, an army sur- 
geon who wore the Medal of Honor for his 
courageous service in the campaign against 
the Apache Indians. Concerning this friend, 
President Roosevelt has written : 

" He combined, in a very high degree, the 
qualities of entire manliness with entire up- 
rightness and cleanliness of character. It was 
a pleasure to deal w^ith a man of high ideals, 
who scorned everything mean and base and 
who also possessed those robust and hardy 
qualities of body and mind, for the lack of 
which no merely negative virtue can ever 
atone. He was by nature a soldier of the 
highest type." 

These two men had much in common : they 
both loved courage, and action, and adventure, 
and combat. They both possessed the phy- 
sical qualities that make action and adventure 
possible. Dr. Wood was one of the few army 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. J J 

men who had as great strength and endurance 
as an Indian. 

The two took long walks together in and 
around Washington, or, like two college-boys, 
kicked a foot-ball about some vacant lot. 
They had many good talks together, and many 
plans and schemes. Dr. Wood was at one 
time eager to go on a relief expedition to 
rescue the suffering gold-hunters in the Klon- 
dike. 

But the subject they returned to most fre- 
quently was the possible war with Spain. 
Both agreed that if war actually came, they 
would go to the front. 

During the winter General Young visited 
Washington. He had been in command of 
Yellowstone National Park, and Roosevelt, 
as President of the Boone and Crockett Club, 
had, therefore, come to know him quite well. 
He, accordingly, invited him to take luncheon 
with him at the Metropolitan Club. Dr. Wood 
was also one of the guests. 

As usual, the conversation turned to the 
approaching war. Mr. Roosevelt and Dr. 
Wood both asserted their intention to be at 



7$ THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

the scene of action if hostilities actually broke 
out. 

" Get into my brigade, if I have one," said 
their guest, " and if there is any fighting, I'll 
guarantee to show you some." 

He kept his word. After the blowing up 
of the American battleship "Maine" in Cuban 
waters, under circumstances indicating that 
Spain was responsible for the disaster, war 
was inevitable. 

The President and Secretary Long both 
urged Mr. Roosevelt to continue in the posi- 
tion he filled so ably, but he was determined 
to go to war and handed in his resignation. 

When Congress authorized the raising of 
three regiments of cavalry volunteers from 
among the riflemen of the Great Plains and 
the Rockies, Roosevelt was offered command 
of one of the regiments. The offer was in a 
way just what he wanted. 

He was perfectly confident that in a month 
he could learn what was needful. But time 
was valuable ; he felt sure the war would be 
of short duration, and he feared that while he 
was learning what he ought to do, experienced 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 79 

officers would have their regiments ready and 
would be sent to the front before him. 

He, therefore, requested that his friend, Leon- 
ard Wood, should be made colonel of the regi- 
ment, and expressed his willingness to act as 
Lieutenant-Colonel under him. 

His request was granted, and he accepted a 
commission as Lieutenant-Colonel of the First 
United States Volunteer Cavalry. 

When the regiment was mustered from the 
western territories, General Young applied to 
have it put in his brigade. 



IX. 

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt's well- 
known energy and perseverance gave assur- 
ance that the regiment with which he had to 
do would reach the front in time for the fight- 
ing, even though the war should be a very 
brief and successful one. Venturesome young 
men from all over the country were, there- 
fore, eager to join the First Regiment of Cav- 



80 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

airy Volunteers, and many applicants had to 
be refused. 

While the troops were assembling at San 
Antonio, Texas, Mr. Roosevelt was at Wash- 
ington conferring" with Government officials 
and railroad men and doing all in his power 
to obtain uniforms, saddles, and arms for his 
regiment. 

When at length he reached San Antonio, 
he found among the motley crowd gathered 
there many familiar faces. He was greeted by 
men with whom he had hunted in the moun- 
tains of the far Northwest ; there were cowboys 
with whom he had ridden at spring round-ups ; 
there was his own ranch partner, Ferguson. 
There were miners, Indians, and cattlemen of 
the southern plains whose names were known 
all along the frontier. 

A few men from the East had been allowed 
to enlist. Among them were policemen who 
had served under Roosevelt in New York; 
there were men with whom he had studied at 
Harvard; there were athletes whom he had 
known as polo players, captains of crews, and 
foot-ball elevens. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



His spirits rose and his eyes brightened as 
he surveyed the material from which he was 
to make his famous regiment. Though their 
lives had in many respects been widely differ- 
ent, the men had much in common. They 
were brave, high-spirited, and ambitious, eager 
to face danger and win glory. They were 
men of iron muscle and iron will. 

They would not have to be seasoned to 
endure scant rations and hard beds, nor to 
shoot and ride. These things they knew 
already. The question was, Would these in- 
dependent, fiery spirited men be willing to 
obey orders and conform to military usage — 
would they who were used to command be 
willing to serve in the ranks? 

Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt explained to 
them that camp discipline was strict, that there 
would be little chance for promotion, that most 
of the work would be laborious and inglorious, 
and advised them to withdraw before it was 
too late unless they were willing to suffer 
many hardships. 

All were eager to go, however, on any 
terms. Colonel Wood now gave his attention 



82 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

to the proper equipment of the regiment, and 
Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt took in charge 
the drilling of the troops. He realized fully 
the delicacy of his task. 

Such men must be ruled with firmness but 
with friendliness. They must be made to feel 
confidence in the good sense and the good will 
of their officers. 

He followed a wise course : while firm and 
exacting with reference to matters so important 
as punctuality in guard duty, cleanliness, and 
obedience, he treated w r ith great patience any 
unintentional violation of military etiquette. 
Under this treatment the men showed surpris- 
ing anxiety to deport themselves in the small- 
est matters. 

Considering the mixed multitude, life in the 
hot and dusty camp passed with but little fric- 
tion. A Harvard graduate cooked without 
complaint for New Mexico cowboys. College- 
boys and cowboys " messed and bunked" 
together. Of course, the peculiarities of dif- 
ferent regions gave rise to much good-natured 
banter. 

Nicknames were freely distributed — an eas- 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 83 

terner, because of his fine manners and gen- 
tlemanly ways, was called "Tough Ike." A 
cowboy who once remarked with evident pride 
that he had an aunt who lived in the Metrop- 
olis, New York, was ever afterward known as 
"Metropolitan Bill." 

When it came to regimental drill, all were 
in earnest and did their best. Most of them 
were spare, erect fellows, with weather-beaten, 
manly faces. The uniform— a flannel shirt, 
kerchief, dust-colored hat, trousers, and leg- 
gings — wa s well suited to them. 
' Their horses were wild, untrained creatures, 
and the first drills were exciting and amusing ; 
but in a short time Colonel Roosevelt had 
reason to feel proud of his " Rough Riders," 
as the public named them. 

When word came to advance to Tampa, 
Florida, from which point the troops were to 
embark, there was general rejoicing. Colonel 
Roosevelt had charge of four divisions on the 

journey. 

He liked to see everything done in business- 
like style, and to him the inadequacy of the 
accommodations for transporting soldiers and 



84 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

baggage and horses seemed inexcusable. It 
took the utmost effort on his part to secure 
provisions and cars and to get them loaded. 

The long journey was anything but pleas- 
ant ; the weather was hot, the trains were 
crowded, and the food and water were poor. 
Colonel Roosevelt did what he could to 
lighten the hardships of the journey, even 
buying food for the men with his own money. 

Wherever the train stopped, crowds of pa- 
triotic southerners greeted the soldiers with 
cheers and gifts of fruit and flowers. 

At Tampa all was confusion ; fortunately, 
the stay there was not long. The order to 
embark, however, was not without disappoint- 
ment for the Rough Riders. Only eight troops 
of seventy men each were to be allowed to go, 
and horses were to be left in America. 

Colonel Roosevelt sympathized heartily with 
the troopers that must stay, and did his best to 
console them. 

But as the regular troops were, naturally, to 
be sent to the front before the volunteers, he 
was glad to have even a portion of his regi- 
ment allowed to go. He bent his energy to 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 85 

securing a transport and getting his troops 
aboard. For days the crowded troop-ships 
lay in the harbor in the glare of the sun ; 
but at length the welcome order to start 
came. 

On the evening of the thirteenth of June 
over thirty troop-ships steamed out of Tampa 
harbor, while people waved a farewell from the 
shore, bands played, flags fluttered, and men 
crowded to the railing or climbed into the 
rigging to take what was for many their last 
look at America. 

Torpedo boats and ironclad war-ships 
guarded the transports as they plowed their 
way through the blue waters of the southern 
sea to a destination unknown to the troops. 

Although Colonel Roosevelt did not know 
where the troops were to be landed, he felt 
sure that an opportunity to meet the enemy 
would be given them. 

He kept the coming day of battle before the 
minds of all as a goal most earnestly to be 
desired, and made every one feel that to fail 
to do his duty well in that hour of trial would 
be a worse fate than death. 



86 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

He made close friendships with some of the 
officers, and saw as much of the men as he 
could. He found that in spite of the discom- 
fort arising from the crowded condition of the 
ship and the unpalatable rations the men were 
making little complaint. 

For most of the men from the West this was 
their first voyage, their first sight of the ocean. 
The endless expanse of undulating blue re- 
minded them of the boundless plains where 
the tall grass billowed all day in the rising 
and falling wind. 

Some sat silent and thought of the past or 
dreamed of the future. Others told tales of 
wild border life to groups of interested lis- 
teners. 

The monotony of the voyage was relieved 
by the presence of so many other vessels. 
The transports moved in long, parallel lines, 
and the great guardian war-ships kept close 
watch. If any strange craft came in sight, a 
torpedo boat was sent darting away to discover 
whether or not the new-comer could by any 
possibility be a Spanish ship bent on mischief. 

In the evening, when the band played on 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 8? 

deck, it was pleasant to watch the boats light 
up one after another, and to see the reflection 
glow more and more brightly in the darkening 
water, while the strange stars of the southern 
cross burned ever brighter in the black sky. 

On the morning of the twentieth all awoke 
to find land near. As they looked at the 
mountains of the Cuban coast looming high 
and dark across the water, they knew that 
Santiago was their destination. In the after- 
noon they had a glimpse of Santiago Harbor 
and the great, grim, gray war-ships that were 
soon to play their brilliant part in the war. 

On June the twenty-second the order for 
landing the troops was given. The war-ships 
shelled the quiet little Spanish village, Daiquin, 
first, to drive away any Spaniards who might 
be lingering there. 

To land the men, horses, and provisions of 
an army in the poor harbor where the surf was 
heavy and the boats were few was a problem. 
But Colonel Roosevelt, always on the alert, 
displayed his usual push and promptness here. 

While others were still wondering what to 
do, he discovered an acquaintance, secured a 



88 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

pilot, got his transport well in toward the land, 
and his troops ashore. 

They camped that night on a brush-covered 
heath lying between a dense jungle and a 
shallow, palm-bordered pool. They had no 
tents and slept on the ground. But they felt 
less need of shelter then than on the following 
day, when they were obliged to make lodges 
of palm leaves to protect themselves from the 
tropical sun. 

x. 

IN CUBA. 

The Rough Riders were soon given a taste 
of fighting. Scarcely had they finished bring- 
ing the baggage to camp when they received 
the command to advance toward the Spanish 
outposts. 

Expecting resistance at Las Guasimas, where 
the enemy held a ridge at the meeting of the 
road and a hill trail, General Young divided 
his troops, sending one division focward over 
the road, and the other, in which the Rough 
Riders were included, by the trail. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



Now the Rough Riders had cause to wish 
for their horses. Their life in the saddle had 
not fitted them for long marches on foot. The 
tramp in the heat wearied them greatly. 
Nevertheless, the march was continued until 
long after dark, when at length the order to 
halt came. 

The men had hardly time to make their 
fires, boil their coffee, and fry their pork before 
a tropical rainstorm broke upon them. All — 
officers and men — were drenched. Fortu- 
nately, the rain did not last long. As soon as 
it had passed, fires were again kindled and the 
men gathered around them to dry their clothes 
as best they could before they lay down to sleep. 

At six o'clock the next day the Rough 
Riders were again on the march. Colonel 
Wood hurried them up a steep hill at a lively 
pace. Some were so foot-sore and exhausted 
that they were obliged to drop out of line. 
The haste was necessary, however, if the 
Rough Riders were to be on hand in time to 
take part in the engagement. 

After they reached the hilltop, where the 
breeze blew and the walking was more easy, 



9 o 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



the march became less trying. The country 
through which they passed was beautiful and 
strange, with hills and mountains, noble palms, 
and the gorgeous scarlet-flower tree. 

The birds sang; the sky was a deep blue. 
Colonel Roosevelt says that he felt more as if 
he were going to hunt than to fight. But 
before long he was aware that this was no 
pleasure trip. 

Where the trail led through a dense jungle, 
bullets began to whizz over his head. Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Roosevelt had for his superior 
officer on this day of his initiation in battle a 
commander after his own heart — his friend, 
Colonel Wood. Colonel Wood, while always 
careful to shield his men as much as possible, 
was himself so fearless that he gave the sol- 
diers courage. 

He was cool-headed and commanding, as 
well as brave. When the bullets began to 
strike the trees and the men began to dodge 
and swear, he ordered sharply, " Stop swearing 
and shoot!" and they obeyed. The skirmish 
was an ugly one. An unseen enemy sent 
against the Rough Riders a hail of bullets. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 9 1 

As the Spanish used smokeless powder, it 
was impossible to see from where the attack 
came. The trees were no protection, for the 
Mauser bullets cut their way straight through 
them. It was not only impossible to see the 
enemy, but in the jungle it was impossible 
for an officer to watch his own men or to 
know what action his fellow-officers were 
taking. 

Colonel Roosevelt would have given much 
to survey the field and so enable himself to 
make an intelligent plan of attack. But he 
had to content himself with the simple com- 
mand, " Forward I" The dead and wounded 
had to be left in the jungle. 

The thought that the brave fellows might 
become the prey of the great land-crabs and 
vultures was horrible to him, but he allowed 
no able-bodied man to linger in the rear. Set- 
ting an example of courage, he urged on the 
troops. 

The Spaniards fled before the combined 
attack of General Young and Colonel Wood, 
leaving the Americans in possession of the 
field and well on their way to Santiago. 



g 2 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

During the battle thirty-four Rough Riders 
were wounded and eight were killed. 

The experience he gained at Las Guasimas 
gave Lieutenant Roosevelt so much confidence 
in himself that when General Young became 
ill and his responsibilities fell upon Colonel 
Wood, Roosevelt was glad to take full com- 
mand of the regiment. 

On the twenty-fifth, camp was moved to a 
marshy flat on the bank of a river, and a brief 
but trying period of waiting followed. 

The luggage was brought up from the coast, 
but the tents were small protection against the 
tropical downpours that deluged the camp 
nearly every afternoon. 

The weather was hot, and the food was not 
suited to the climate. While the supply of 
pork was always ample, the coffee always ran 
short, and no vegetables were provided. 

Colonel Roosevelt made up a pack train of 
mules and officers 1 horses and went to the port, 
where, by dint of perseverance, persuasion, and 
commands, he succeeded in obtaining, at his 
own expense, a store of beans and canned 
tomatoes for the men of his regiment. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 93 

On the thirtieth of June camp was again 
broken and the march toward Santiago was 
resumed. Marching was particularly hard for 
the Rough Riders. They were at the rear 
of the line, and had to accommodate their 
pace to that of the division in front of 
them. 

Whenever a halt was made, Colonel Roose- 
velt ordered his men to loosen their packs and 
lie down for a few moments' rest. When the 
command to march came, all scrambled up and 
pressed forward with good will. The arrange- 
ments for the night were little more elaborate 
than for these brief naps. The men slept on 
their arms, and were roused at dawn by the 
booming of cannon. 

The first hours of the conflict were hours 
of trial to Colonel Roosevelt. He had been 
ordered to lie in reserve, awaiting further 
orders. The place assigned him was open to 
the fire of the Spanish guns, and although he 
did his best to get his troops sheltered, every 
now and then a soldier was shot. 

The inaction and continual fear of being 
struck by the shells bursting overhead or 



94 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



plowing up the ground were telling on the 
nerves, courage, and spirits of the men. 

He requested his orderly to go in search of 
a general and ask permission to move into 
action as his regiment was being badly cut 
up. But the young fellow was shot as he 
rose to obey. 

After sending messenger after messenger in 
search of his general he made up his mind to 
act on his own responsibility, and " march 
toward the guns " ; but just at this moment 
the order came, " Move forward and support 
the regulars in the assault on the hills in front." 

As Colonel Roosevelt says, his " coveted 
hour" had come. He sprang upon his horse 
and rode about, trying to put some spirit into 
the men, for many of them were qualmish and 
afraid to rise. A bullet evidently intended for 
the mounted colonel struck a soldier who re- 
fused to rise, and, passing lengthwise through 
his body, killed him. 

When the men were on their feet and the 
ranks formed, he pushed his w T ay from line to 
line, shouting, reprimanding, joking, until the 
momentary panic was over and the men were 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 95 



as eager for action and as fearless as their 
commander. 

When the Rough Riders had advanced to 
the place where the soldiers of the First Regi- 
ment of United States Infantry were lying 
exposed to a fire they could not return, 
Roosevelt rode up to one of the Captains in 
the rear and said, " My orders are to support 
the regulars in the attack upon the hills. In 
my judgment we cannot take the hills by firing 
at them. We must rush them." 

The Captain replied, " My orders are to keep 
my men where they are. I cannot charge 
without orders." "Then," said Roosevelt, 
"as your Colonel is not in sight, I am the 
ranking officer here, and I give the order to 
charge." The Captain hesitated to accept 
orders contrary to those his own Colonel had 
given him. 

"Very well," said Roosevelt, "if you are not 
walling to advance, you will kindly let my men 
through." And he rode on through the lines, 
followed by the grinning Rough Riders, who 
had been listening to the dialogue with keen 
enjoyment. 



96 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

The regulars could not lie still and see the 
volunteers pass them, so, jumping to their feet, 
they joined the Rough Riders in their charge 
up the hill. 

At almost the same time other regiments 
started forward, and there was a general 
advance against the Spanish stronghold. 
Colonel Roosevelt rode, now along the lines 
to hurry on those in the rear, now at the head 
of the regiment, waving his hat and cheering 
on the men until, at length, coming to a wire 
fence, he was obliged to dismount and turn 
" Texas," his horse, loose. Then, afoot, he 
rushed on up the hill. 

All was excitement. Every man's one wish 
was to be the first to reach the top of the hill. 
The deadly fire from the Spanish could check 
the onward rush of those only who were actu- 
ally struck by a bullet. 

Having reached the crest of the hill, Roose- 
velt saw, at his left, the infantry climbing the 
hill to attack the San Juan block house. He 
set his sharpshooters to firing at the men in 
the trenches. The arrival of Lieutenant Par- 
ker with the Gatling guns, which quickly went 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 97 

into action and did good service, was cheered 
by the Americans. 

As the infantry neared the top of the hill, 
the Spaniards took to their heels. Seeing this, 
Roosevelt shouted to his men, bidding them 
follow him, and started to charge the next line 
of entrenchments in front, from which the 
Spanish were sending a rapid and well- 
directed fire. 

He leaped over a wire fence and started up 
the hill at a run in the face of the fire. He 
ran a hundred yards before he discovered that 
he was followed by only five men. Two of 
these were shot, and he rushed back, sum- 
moning the Rough Riders and reprimanding 
them for not supporting him. 

In the excitement they had not heard or 
seen their colonel, but their attention once 
gained, they were eager to make up for their 
delinquency, and when he started across the 
field again, it was with a strong following. 
By bold dashes the Americans drove the 
Spanish from entrenchment to entrenchment 
until they reached the heights overlooking 
Santiago. 



98 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

Colonel Roosevelt found himself the rank- 
ing officer on the hill in the extreme front, 
and so in command of those soldiers of the 
six regiments that had kept pace with him. 
The exposed position in which they stood 
offered little shelter from the Spanish fire, but 
Roosevelt had no thought of retreating or of 
allowing any one else to do so. 

Seeing that the colored infantrymen who 
had been most courageous in the charge were 
getting nervous and drifting to the rear under 
pretense of finding their officers or helping the 
wounded, he drew his revolver, saying he 
would shoot the first man who attempted to 
go to the rear. 

He tells the story as follows : 

" My own men had all sat up and were 
watching my movements with the utmost 
interest. I ended my statements to the col- 
ored soldiers by saying: ' Now, I shall be very 
sorry to hurt you, and you don't know whether 
or not I will keep my word, but my men will 
tell you that I always do,' whereupon my cow- 
punchers, hunters, and miners solemnly nodded 
their heads and commented in chorus, exactly 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 99 

as if in comic opera, ' He always does ; he 
always does.' " 

Later Colonel Roosevelt received orders not 
to advance, but to hold the hill at any cost 
With only such food and blankets as they 
found in the Spanish camp they passed the 
night on the hill. 

Until midnight most of the men worked, 
throwing up trenches to shelter themselves 
from the fire in front. Then, completely ex- 
hausted, they slept in spite of cold and hunger. 

The officers fared no better than the soldiers, 
and these days of danger and hardship, shared 
together on San Juan Hill, did much to endear 
Colonel RooseveU to his Rough Riders. 

The men vied with one another to contrib- 
ute to the comfort of the colonel who had 
shown himself ready to suffer every privation 
his men were called upon to endure. 

When offered a dollar a piece for hard tack, 

they would rather give any luxury that came 

into their possession to him than to sell or keep 

it. If a Rough Rider shot a guinea-hen, he 

insisted on Roosevelt accepting it, and would 

probably have been disappointed to learn that 
LofC. 



IOO THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

instead of eating it he sent it to the temporary 
hospital for the wounded. 

An ex-round-up cook who had found some 
flour and sugar in the Spanish camp sent his 
first batch of doughnuts to his colonel. 

When the truce came, Colonel Roosevelt 
again exerted his influence and spent his 
money to see that the vegetables provided 
only for the officers' mess made a part of 
every soldier's rations. 

He took pains also to get rice and appro- 
priate food for those suffering from wounds 
and illness. 

In spite of hardships, it was not without a 
sigh of regret that the Rough Riders reflected, 
as they saw the American flag raised over San- 
tiago, that fighting, in that neighborhood at 
least, was over. 

XL 

AFTER THE WAR. 

A harder trial than the fiery one of battle 
was now in store for the United States troops 
in Cuba. A period of inactivity and waiting 
had come. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. ioi 

After the siege of Santiago was ended the 



m z>~ ~ ~ <V 



cavalry and the artillery went into camp on the 
foot-hills west of El Caney. The region was 
beautiful. 

The camp was situated near a clear stream ; 
the lofty mountains rose against a sky of vivid 
blue ; groves of graceful palms spreading their 
glistening fronds of great green leaves, and 
the scarlet-flower trees, with their brilliant blos- 
soms, satisfied the eye. 

But the soldiers soon learned that with all 
the loveliness there was little enoueh of com- 
fort. Nearly every afternoon a tropical rain- 
storm burst upon the camp, Then the sun 
shone with terrible heat upon the wet earth 
and rank vegetation. 

Midsummer in the tropics would have been 
trying under any circumstances to men unused 
to the climate. But the conditions of the en- 
campment near El Caney were such as greatly 
to increase the necessary discomforts. 

In the blazing sun the tents were like ovens, 
and afforded slight shelter from the storms. 
The men had no cots, but slept on blankets on 
the moist earth ; those who had lacked strength 



102 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

to carry their blankets and had dropped them 
on the march were now obliged to sleep on the 
bare earth unless some stronger trooper volun- 
teered to cut his own blanket in two and share 
it with the sick. 

The uniforms were in rags and tatters ; the 
food was heat-making and better suited for arc- 
tic explorers than for inactive men in the tropics. 
The soldiers had no means of boiling the un- 
wholesome water they were obliged to drink. 

Colonel Roosevelt was in command of the 
Second Brigade of Cavalry. Although ex- 
posed to the same discomforts and risks as the 
others, he kept strong and well. His chief care 
was for the comfort and safety of his men. He 
could not bear to see the brave fellows who 
had faced death on San Juan Hill now stricken 
with wasting debilitating fever. 

He did all he could for their welfare. He 
saw to it that the camp was kept as clean as 
possible ; he ordered the men to build little 
bunks of poles to sleep on, that they might not 
be obliged to lie on the wet ground. 

At considerable expense and with great dif- 
ficulty he procured for them coffee and vege- 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. IO3 

tables. He succeeded, too, in getting rice, 
meal, and tea for the sick and the half sick who 
would otherwise have had to eat bacon and 
hard tack. He tried to devise sports and to 
plan expeditions to occupy their minds and 
give them exercise. But he found that exer- 
tion in the extreme heat greatly increased the 
number of sick. 

In spite of the utmost care he could not 
ward off from his camp the malarial fever prev- 
alent in the district. Many of the soldiers were 
seriously ill with it, while others, spiritless and 
miserable, managed to keep out of the hospital. 
Only about 20 per cent, of the once hale and 
healthy Rough Riders were now sound and fit 
for work. Of their officers, only two escaped 
without a day's illness ; one of these was 
Colonel Roosevelt. 

A few cases of yellow fever broke out among 
the Cubans in one of the regiments, and sev- 
eral United States soldiers were taken sick with 
the deadly disease. People feared there would 
be an epidemic, and said the troops must be 
quarantined and not allowed to bring yellow 
fever into the United States, 



104 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

At this juncture Major-General Shafter sum- 
moned a meeting of all commanding and medi- 
cal officers of the Fifth Army Corps at the 
Governor's palace in Santiago De Cuba, for 
the purpose of talking over the situation and 
deciding what ought to be done. 

A message from the Secretary of War ad- 
vising the removal of the army to the interior 
of the island was read. Colonel Roosevelt 
heard the recommendation with great disfavor. 
He saw no reason why the cavalry regiments 
should stay in Cuba during the hot months, 
and many good reasons why they should be 
moved promptly to a cool, healthful place in 
New England. 

As seasoned troops were arriving to hold 
Santiago, and as the cavalry brigade was not 
to take part in the Porto Rico campaign, they 
were not needed for military service. As there 
were so far only a few cases of yellow fever, 
and since there was no immediate danger of 
an epidemic, there was no cause for excluding 
them from United States territory. 

If the regiments remained where they were, 
many soldiers would die and the remainder 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 105 

would become so weakened by malaria that 
they would not be ready for service in the fall. 
Besides, to stay there would be to invite what 
they so much feared — an epidemic of yellow 
fever. 

To follow the recommendations of the Sec- 
retary of War was impossible for two reasons : 
Colonel Roosevelt knew that the interior pla- 
teau designated was the sugar-cane country, 
where the rainfall was more abundant than 
on the coast, where the rich, deep soil was cov- 
ered with rank vegetation, and " the guinea 
grass grew higher than the head of a man on 
horseback." It was not a fit place for a sum- 
mer camp. 

But even if the location had been desirable, 
the army could not have reached it, as there 
were no wagons and the men were unable to 
walk. That Colonel Roosevelt was not alone 
in this view was evident at the meeting. Obe- 
dience is the cardinal military virtue. 

It is the soldier's duty to execute and not to 
question the orders of his superior officer. But 
as each man was called upon to give his opin- 
ion, it was clear that in this case all did ques- 



106 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

tion the wisdom of keeping the army in Cuba 
any longer. 

On going back to his camp, Colonel Roose- 
velt wrote out his reasons for wishing the 
immediate removal of the cavalry brigade from 
Cuba. He read his statement to his fellow- 
officers, made such corrections as they advised, 
and sent it to General Shafter. 

Thinking there should be some more gen- 
eral protest against the wish of the Washing- 
ton authorities, the other commanding officers 
drew up a brief statement, which they all, in- 
cluding Colonel Roosevelt, signed. 

Roosevelt knew he would be criticised for 
taking this initiative in this matter ; that many 
would say he was interfering with the business 
of men who were quite able to manage their 
own affairs. But his sense of duty to the men 
under his command was stronger than his 
sense of military etiquette. 

He said: "I write only because I cannot 
see our men, who have fought so bravely and 
who have endured extreme hardship and dan- 
ger so uncomplainingly, go to destruction with- 
out striving so far as lies in me to avert a 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 107 

doom as fearful as it is unnecessary and un- 
deserved." 

The statements were made public, and pro- 
duced immediate results. Three days later 
orders came to have the troops in readiness to 
embark, and on the sixth day of August the 
Rough Riders left Cuba. 

Colonel Roosevelt had charge of the trans- 
port that carried the men. With his usual 
decision he quelled a threatened mutiny among 
the stokers. He put a stop to drinking, and 
kept good order on the crowded decks. One of 
the sick died during the voyage and was given 
sea burial, covered with the stars and stripes. 

The transport was bound for Long Island. 
On the afternoon of the fourteenth it cast 
anchor off Montauk. A gun-boat came out 
to meet the transport and announced that the 
war was over, and peace negotiations had been 
commenced. 

When they left Cuba they had hoped to 
return in the autumn with the remainder of 
their regiment and their horses, and share in 
the campaign that would in all probability be 
made against Havana. 



108 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

The divided regiment of Rough Riders was 
united at Montauk. The men who had stayed 
at Tampa missed from the ranks many brave 
fellows they had hoped to see. They found 
the rest gaunt, haggard, and ragged, almost 
past recognition. They, too, had had their 
share of fever at Tampa. But in the bracing 
air of Long Island the men soon regained their 
health and good spirits. 

The Rough Riders fared sumptuously now. 
They had such luxuries as coffee, eggs, milk, 
and fruit. They were glad to have their 
horses once more, and looked forward to drill 
with pleasure. In leisure hours they performed 
many a daring feat of horsemanship, to the 
wonder and envy of the other cavalry regi- 
ments. 

The regiment had some curious pets that 
greatly diverted the men. One was a tame 
mountain lion ; another an eagle ; so attached 
was the bird to the regiment that it stayed 
about the camp, though left at liberty to fly. 
Besides these there were several stray small 
boys that had been adopted by the regiment. 

Colonel Roosevelt busied himself with field 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 109 

work. He did not care for the desk work of 
army life, and the "red tape" of the service 
was somewhat a mystery to him. 

He learned after the war was over that as 
Colonel he had often, all unconsciously, over- 
ridden rules, acting on his own responsibility 
in awarding punishments and rewards where 
the rules required the authority of a higher 
officer. But his men had always accepted his 
verdict as final, and had been more than con- 
tent with his dispensation of justice. 

One Sunday, before the troops were dis- 
charged, Colonel Roosevelt rose after the 
Chaplain had finished his sermon and made 
a short address. He told the men how proud 
he was of them : extolled their bravery and 
endurance in generous and sincere terms, and 
gave them some wholesome advice. 

He reminded them that, however glorious 
their record was, the world would scarcely 
make heroes of them for more than ten days, 
and urged them to return to work and again 
become peaceful and useful citizens. 

The u boys " thought that whatever the colo- 
nel said or did was quite right, and they lis- 



110 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

tened to his advice with willing minds. Every- 
one of them admired Colonel Theodore Roose- 
velt, and felt that he would be a better man for 
having known him. 

A few days later he was called from his tent 
one bright afternoon to find his regiment 
drawn up in a hollow square with the officers 
in the middle. 

As the colonel advanced with a questioning 
look, one of the troopers stepped quickly for- 
ward, and with words of gratitude and affec- 
tion, on behalf of the regiment, presented 
the colonel with Remington's bronze, " The 
Bronco-buster." 

Colonel Roosevelt was deeply touched by 
this appropriate tribute. It was with deep 
feeling that he shook each manly fellow's hand 
as all filed past to say good-by. 

His interest in the Rough Riders did not 
end with this farewell ; he has since sought to 
know how each has taken up the duties of 
peace, and has contrived to help those who 
have suffered by reason of their four months' 
service in the uniform of the United States 
Volunteers 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Ill 

XII. 

GOVERNOR. 

Theodore Roosevelt had not held a high 
place in the army during the Spanish-American 
War, but it is a good thing to be greater than 
the office you hold. In this case the man, 
rather than the rank, counted. Roosevelt has 
a habit of making whatever he does a center 
of interest, of doing whatever he does in a 
way to make it important. 

He went into the war a lieutenant-colonel; 
he came out the people's hero, sharing the 
laurels with the great admirals of the navy. 
Before the war he had done his share of the 
management and handiwork. It was largely 
because of his work as Assistant Secretary of 
the Navy that the United States Navy was 
ready for its brilliant victories. 

During the war he had left the desk and the 
officer's tent, and led the fight where the fire 
was hottest. In this he had done nothing ex- 
traordinary, nothing that another would not 
have done gladly. In fact, that is just the 
point. 



I 1 2 THE OD ORE R O OSE VEL T. 

He had done exactly what the average 
American citizen with like ability and oppor- 
tunity would have done. He had done what 
they all would have liked to do. He had real- 
ized what was their ideal for themselves. And 
they honored him abundantly for it. He was 
their ideal, their typical American. 

Everywhere his countrymen felt an almost 
intimate friendliness and comradeship for the 
man. They discarded the formal, and dignified 
" Theodore," and spoke of him with affectionate 
familiarity as "our Teddy." In no place was 
the enthusiasm greater than where he was best 
known — in his native State, New York. 

The Governor of New York was a popular 
and highly esteemed man. He had been 
elected by a large majority, and his friends 
looked forward with confidence to his re-elec- 
tion. But the people of the State were deter- 
mined to give the highest office they could 
bestow to Roosevelt. He was plainly their 
choice. 

Many went to the Republican State Conven- 
tion with the hope of nominating Governor 
Black as the Republican candidate for governor. 



THE OD ORE R O OSE VEL T. I I 3 

But it was soon evident that no candidate 
could compete with the one of whom Hon. 
Chauncey M. Depew said, in his nomination 
speech : 

" In that hot and pest-cursed climate of 
Cuba, officers had opportunities for protection 
from miasma and fever which were not pos- 
sible for the men. But the Rough Riders en- 
dured no hardships nor dangers which were 
not shared by their colonel. He helped them 
dig the ditches; he stood beside them in the 
deadly dampness of the trenches. 

" No floored tent for him if his comrades 
must sleep on the ground and under the sky. 
In that world-famed charge of the Rougdi 
Riders through the hail of shot and up the 
hill of San Juan their colonel was a hundred 
feet in advance." 

Seeing how matters stood, Governor Black's 
friends decided to withdraw his name, and they 
did it with a good grace. This is what their 
spokesman said : 

"On behalf of Governor Black and on 
behalf of every delegate who voted for him 
in this convention I say we will stand by the 



I 1 4 THE ODORE RO OSE I EL T 

nomination of Colonel Roosevelt, as Colonel 
Roosevelt has stood by the country. More than 
that, we will take the executive chair for Colonel 
Roosevelt as he took the height at San Juan." 

The Republican candidate knew the needs 
of his State; he knew his own ability; he 
knew the difficulties, and decided that the 
w r ork of governor was exactly what he wanted 
to do. Without false modesty, he took an ac- 
tive part in the campaign and w r orked to secure 
his own election. He was elected by a plural- 
ity of about seventeen thousand. 

With great zest the new governor took up 
the work of his office. It was as if he were 
now to have a chance to harvest the good seed 
he had sown in the old days in the assembly. 

The reform of the civil service, the appoint- 
ment of men in State offices on the basis of 
merit only, was still an unaccomplished ideal. 
The Governor could do much to make it a 
reality. 

The investigation of tenement houses that 
he had started had been carried forward, and 
the time had come for effective legislation con- 
cerning them. 



THE ODORE ROOSEVELT. r z 5 

The question of equalizing power and re- 
sponsibility, the withdrawing of restraints that 
checked men holding responsible positions in 
their efforts to do their duty, had, you will re- 
member, in the old days applied to the alder- 
men's power to veto the mayor's appoint- 
ments. Now the point at issue was to relieve 
the President of the Board of Police of New 
York City from paralyzing restrictions. 

One of the great measures accomplished 
during Governor Roosevelt's administration 
was the enactment of a law taxing rich cor- 
porations for the benefit of the State. 

When he had been governor for one year 
Mr. Roosevelt was invited to go to Chicago 
to address the Hamilton Club in the Audi- 
torium. When he reached the city, he was 
welcomed by a delegation of influential citi- 
zens. But seeing in the crowd a group of 
men in Rough Rider uniforms, he ignored 
his distinguished hosts for the moment, while 
he greeted each of the "boys" by name, and 
asked them to call at his hotel. 

They had come to the station counting on 
friendly recognition, but they found " the Colo- 



Il6 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



nel" even more " like himself" than they had 
expected. 

It was on this occasion, while a guest of the 
Hamilton Club, that Mr. Roosevelt delivered 
his famous address on "The Strenuous Life." 
He began with the following words : 

"In speaking to you, men of the greatest 
city of the West, men of the State which 
gave to the country Lincoln and Grant, men 
who pre-eminently and distinctly embody all 
that is most American in the American char- 
acter, I wish to preach, not the doctrine of 
ienoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous 
life; to preach that highest form of success 
which comes, not to the man who desires mere 
easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink 
from danger, from hardships, or from bitter toil, 
and who out of these wins the splendid ulti- 
mate triumph. 

" A life of ignoble ease, a life of that peace 
which springs merely from lack either of desire 
or of power to strive after great things, is as 
little worthy of a nation as of an individual." 1 

It was a notable speech, and thoroughly 

1 From Strenuous Life, published by the Century Co., by permission. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. \\y 

characteristic of the man who uttered it. It 
made a deep impression. 

It was manifest from Governor Roosevelt's 
Chicago visit that he was as popular in the 
West as he was in the East. Many thought 
he should be given a place on the National 
Republican ticket. As President McKinley 
was the obvious candidate for the first place, 
only the second place was available for 
Governor Roosevelt. 

I have said that Mr. Roosevelt liked to ad- 
vance from difficulty to difficulty; but he did 
not like to leave one task for another before 
he had completed the first. He felt that his 
work as Governor of New York was incom- 
plete. He had to struggle against the in- 
fluence of machine politicians, and righting 
wrongs and reforming political evils proved 
to be slow work. 

He needed another term to finish what he 
had set out to do. He hoped to be re-elected. 
Besides, though there was greater prominence 
attached to the Vice-Presidency of the United 
States than to the Governorship of New York, 
the first office was really of less importance 



Il8 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

and did not call for nearly so much executive 
ability and power as the second. 

When he was consulted about the matter, 
Mr. Roosevelt, therefore, refused to accept the 
nomination to the Vice-Presidency. 

At the Republican National Convention, 
where the candidates were chosen, Governor 
Roosevelt seconded the nomination of Presi- 
dent McKinley with an eloquent speech. 
After that matter had been settled a clamor 
arose in the great Convention for Roosevelt 
for the second place. 

So unanimous and earnest was the demand 
of the convention that he resolved to sacrifice 
his own wishes to the welfare of his party and 
of his country. He could not help being 
aware of his own popularity and of knowing 
that his name on the ticket would do much 
toward securing the success of the Republican 
Party in November. 

Having taken the step, he put his best foot 
forward to win the race, not so much for him- 
self as for his party. He wanted to see the 
policy of his party prevail. He was a most 
popular campaign speaker. What he said was 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 1 1 9 

direct and forcible. He gave people some- 
thing to remember and to think about. 

The campaign was a picturesque one. 
Rough Rider uniforms played as prominent 
a part in it as log-cabins had in the William 
Henry Harrison campaign, or split rails in the 
memorable campaign of i860. 

After the inauguration, Mr. Roosevelt took 
up the uncongenial duties of Vice-President 
with the whole-heartedness of the man who, 
having put his hand to the plow, does not look 
back. 



XIII. 
THE PRESIDENT. 



Mr. Roosevelt had been Vice-President 
for only six months when he was called, by the 
death of President McKinley, to fill a higher 
place. 

Tidings of the attempt on the President's 
life reached Mr. Roosevelt at Isle La Motte, 
near Burlington, Vermont. He had just fin- 
ished making an address, when a message was 
handed him telling him that the President of 



120 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

the United States had been shot by an assassin, 
while holding a reception in the Temple of 
Music, at the Pan-American Exposition in 
Buffalo, New York, and that it was feared that 
he would die. 

Mr. Roosevelt left immediately for Buffalo. 
There he found his friend the President rest- 
ing so quietly that the physicians hoped he 
might live. Days of doubt and intense anxiety 
followed. Then the President's condition im- 
proved so decidedly that all thought he was 
out of danger. 

Now that the crisis was passed, Mr. Roose- 
velt realized how severe a nervous strain he 
had been under while the President's life hung, 
in the balance, and felt the need of getting 
away from the people and getting a little rest. 
A little solitude and action would do him a 
world of good. 

With a mind at peace about the recovery of 
the President, he, accordingly, went to the 
Adirondacks for a few days' hunt in the heart 
of the forest. From there he was again sum- 
moned to Buffalo by the news of the Presi- 
dent's death. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 121 



By special train he was hurried across the 
State to the hushed city toward which the 
nation's eyes were turned. 

When the report of the great calamity had 
spread over the country, some doubt and un- 
certainty mingled with the grief of the people 
whose wise and conservative chief had been 
taken from them. There were men who ques- 
tioned Mr. Roosevelt's fitness for the office. 

Many who had perfect confidence in his high 
purpose, his integrity, his business ability, and 
his nobleness of character, feared that he was 
too young, too independent of party, public 
opinion, and counsel of any sort, to assume 
power so vast and duties so delicate. But his 
conduct soon put to rest all such fears. 

After calling at the Milburn home where the 
dead President lay, he was driven to the home 
of Mr. Ansley Wilcox, whose guest he was to 
be. Before getting into the carriage he dis- 
missed the military escort that had been pro- 
vided to guard him, and allowed only two 
policemen to ride near the carriage. 

On the fourteenth day of September, 1901, 
the twenty-sixth President of the United States 



122 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

took the oath of office. A small company 
gathered to witness the ceremony in the library 
of the Wilcox home. His inaugural address 
was brief, but it contained exactly what the 
people wished to hear. 

When asked by the Secretary of War to 
take the oath, he said : " I shall take the oath 
of office in obedience to your request, sir, and 
in doing so it shall be my aim to continue 
absolutely unbroken the policy of President 
McKinley, which has given peace, prosperity, 
and honor to our beloved country." 

Then with uplifted hand he repeated after 
Judge Hazel of the United States District 
Court the oath of office : 

" I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully 
execute the office of President of the United 
States, and will, to the best of my ability, pre- 
serve, protect, and defend the Constitution of 
the United States." 

If the public needed any assurance of the 
President's intention to keep his pledge to 
continue unbroken the policy of his predeces- 
sor, it was not wanting. The new President 
requested the members of President McKin- 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 1 23 

ley's cabinet to keep their places during his 
administration. 

On the day of his inauguration President 
Roosevelt issued the following proclamation : 

" A terrible bereavement has befallen our 
people. The President of the United States 
has been struck down, a crime committed not 
only against the chief magistrate, but against 
every law-abiding and liberty-loving citizen. 

" President McKinley crowned a life of 
largest love for his fellow-men, of most ear- 
nest endeavor for their welfare, by a death of 
Christian fortitude, and both the way in which 
he lived his life and the way in which in the 
supreme hour of trial he met his death, will 
remain forever a precious heritage of our 
people. 

" It is meet that w r e as a nation express our 
abiding love and reverence for his life, our 
deep sorrow for his untimely death. Now, 
therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President 
of the United States of America, do appoint 
Thursday next, September nineteenth, the day 
in which the body of the dead President will 
be laid in its last earthly resting-place, a day 



124 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

of mourning and prayer throughout the United 
States. 

" I earnestly recommend all people to assem- 
ble on that day in their respective places of 
divine worship, there to bow down in submis- 
sion to the will of Almighty God, and to pay 
out of full hearts their homage of love and 
reverence to the great and good President 
whose death has smitten the nation with bitter 
grief." 

When people read these simple, noble words 
they felt that the author of them was indeed a 
safe man with whom to trust the welfare of the 
nation. 

The new President filled the public eye. As 
a man he pleases the American people both in 
his public and private life. Since he has gone 
to the White House to live it seems less an 
official mansion, more a home, than it usually 
does. Mr. Roosevelt married again not long- 
after the death of his first wife. 

Mrs. Roosevelt makes a much-admired host- 
ess of the White House, and the large family 
of children give the dignified old house a pleas- 
antly home-like atmosphere. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. \2$ 

In all social relations, from the simplest ones 
of home to those of a formal diplomatic char- 
acter, President Roosevelt is peculiarly genuine 
and ingratiating. Whether romping with his 
children at his summer home at Oyster Bay, 
or entertaining a prince at Washington, he is 
every inch a man. 

In public affairs, although essentially carry- 
ing out the policy of President McKinley, 
Theodore Roosevelt could not fail to make 
his own strong personality felt in innumerable 
ways. 

He could never be classed among the " timid 
good," "who," he says, "form a most useless 
as well as a most despicable portion of the 
community." 

Fearless of criticism, anxious to make full 
and right use of the incidental as well as the 
official power of his position, he decided in the 
winter of 1902-1903 to do what he could to 
put an end to the great coal-strike that was 
causing wide-spread suffering. 

He invited the representatives of the striking 
miners and of the coal-mine owners to a con- 
ference. They were not bound to obey his 



126 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

summons, but they could not well refuse to do 
so. The effect of his humane interference was 
to bring the strike to a close. 

He is broadly tolerant by nature and train- 
ing, and is quite quick to recognize worth out- 
side of the beaten paths. An educated man 
and an able and interesting writer, he is never 
a carping critic, but is generously appreciative 
of literary merit, and does not limit his praise 
to the work that is receiving the applause of 
the hour. 

Having found the red man a true and loyal 
guide in the western mountains, having seen 
the black man valiant under fire, he cannot 
understand the spirit of those who refuse to 
shake hands with a man unless his skin is 
white. He realizes that he is the president 
of all classes of citizens, black and white, rich 
and poor. 

His sound sense, broad humanity, and per- 
fect impartiality have won confidence and made 
friends for him everywhere. 



